Harry Potter and the Revelations of Eternity
by josh stoddard
Summary: DISCLAIMER: Non-profit fan-fic - all belongs to J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing & Warner Brothers. The death of Lord Voldemort heralds the dawn of a new era in the Wizarding World. Harry, Ron and Hermione leave the Battle of Hogwarts to start afresh. However, loyalty and secrets see dark forces seek to thwart the new found peace...
1. The Black Lake

- PROLOGUE -

The Black Lake

"Harry."

Harry Potter, who had been mulling over the night's events, had been tapped on the shoulder. This sudden exchange of human flesh to fabric made Harry stir tiredly: his finger muscles relaxed to drop Harry's newly repaired wand. It rolled slowly away from him to dully clatter down the pebbled bank of the shore. Ignoring this, Harry turned to his right and saw Hermione. She gave a weak, supportive smile.

"I think it's time to go."

"Yeah…" Harry croaked weakly in reply.

"Mate…your wand?"

It was Ron. Harry did not have the energy to turn once more to face his other best friend. Instead, he took heed with the teenager's hint. Harry realised he had dropped his wand and trudged forwards, bending down to pick it up before collapsing onto the stone. He dropped his head into his hands and rubbed his eyes, frustrated with himself. Ron and Hermione soon decided to sit down on either side of him as he slowly turned his head to look upon the rest of the shore.

The headmaster caught his attention. He thought to himself that he could not bear to leave. He could not let Dumbledore be alone. Dumbledore - in his frame - looked at Harry as if he was X-raying him with his twinkly blue eyes through half-moon spectacles. Albus Dumbledore gave Harry a kindly smile before nodding slowly. This elongated gaze between teacher and pupil lasted a minute or so: it absorbed Harry so much that he was unable to hear the cries of his friends beside him. Harry had saved the entire wizarding world and the ones dearest to him from the wrath of Lord Voldemort for the last time. There were people so close, in the Great Hall, that were probably waiting for him. Professors of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, the students and their parents, the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix who had allowed him to visit the headmaster's office but not there…not at the Lake.

Surely now they awaited his return? To celebrate their victory over evil? By now St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries would have gotten their emergency team into the building, attempting to heal the survivors. The recently controlled employees of the Ministry of Magic would now have had chance to rebel against Death Eater forces in London and been able to get to the school and arrest the surviving followers of Voldemort. Together, both establishments would like to congratulate Harry and thank him for saving as many lives as possible, making their job much easier. Finally, it was definite that journalists of all kinds of Magical Media, including the recently censored Daily Prophet, would have invaded the hall. They would want to interview Harry, take the first photograph of the boy who saved the world. All the attention that was waiting for him in the school would send most people wild with glory and pride, making them feel like the greatest person in the whole world. This would be in any kind of situation apart from the one that had happened on May the second, nineteen ninety eight. Harry was aware of the attention, but was not remotely interested at all. All he was interested in at that moment was saying his final goodbye to Dumbledore and to see Ginny. She was waiting for him. He was desperate to see her properly something he hadn't done for nearly twelve months now. He missed her eyes, her lips…he just wanted to run his fingers through her soft, red hair and kiss her. Hold her tight for hours on end. Listen to her voice. But first, he had to deal with what felt most important to him. Dumbledore. The old man had continued his gentle smile from under his crooked nose for the length of time Harry had ran those thoughts through his mind. Harry assumed the former head-master had read his thoughts through his X-ray eyes. But of course that was totally impossible and Harry knew it. His aching brain had childishly began to churn things out that didn't make much sense. He tried to shrug it off as well trying to throw off the prods and pokes of Ron and Hermione. Harry picked up his wand and clenched it between his fist tightly. He then pushed himself onto his feet and began to limp towards Dumbledore's portrait, dragging his lead-like legs. He finally came face to face with the painting when Dumbledore's smile faded and turned strangely serious, a hint of sympathy in his eyes as he

"Harry…I am sure I told you to go. Just because I am not your head-master anymore does not mean you can disobey me whenever you like." Dumbledore spoke clearly, every word emphasised so that they stuck in Harry's head.

"I can't go just yet, sir."

"And why is that young Harry?"

"I need to say goodbye to a certain someone." Harry stated opening a short silence.

"Ah, well, if that is what you want."

"Yes, yes it is."

"Go ahead then, or shall I start first?" Dumbledore added, chuckling quietly.

"I don't know what to say actually. I just feel I've got to say something."

"Remember the old phrase Harry…actions speak louder than words."

Harry expressed bemusement at this point allowing Dumbledore to smile wider.

"You do not know what to do then?"

"No, no I don't," Harry started, his wand hand shaking, "But I feel like I can't leave you here. I think you're alone."

"Alone, Harry? How could I be? You should take a look around my office. How can I be alone, when, alas, I have all those jolly fellows surrounding me? Maybe, it is you who feels alone. Or maybe, incomplete?"

"I…I…without you here, nothing seems the same anymore. I can't…function." Harry slowly backed away and sat down upon the shore facing Dumbledore who had taken over his bemused expression.

"Yet I do not believe you…especially considering what you have done today."

"But…you helped me."

"I only encouraged you. It was you who made the decision to return to life and defeat Lord Voldemort."

"Maybe…maybe you did…but…"

"Harry…" Dumbledore faltered slightly, "You have to remove me from your life."

"What?! No!" Harry abruptly shouted, standing up, his hands shaking violently, "I…I don't understand!"

"Harry, what I did tonight should have never happened," Dumbledore produced a small smile, "It is the reason why I told you to bring me here this evening. The Black Lake is such a beautifully tranquil place. I believe what must be done can be done here near to where I lie.I defied the laws of heaven and earth, Harry. I broke the boundaries and entered your dreams…things like that should never happen my boy. It seems to of caused a temporary connection between our damaged souls. If you leave now the effect will wear off and you will leave now, Harry. There are people who need you. I know your life has been so negatively affected that you'll never be able to live it without the memories of events passed but make the most of it, young Harry. Sadly all lives are too short…You have Ron... Hermione... and Ginny. They are there and always will be. Leave Hogwarts and live your life, Harry Potter. It is the best that you deserve."

Dumbledore fell silent. Harry stared solemnly at the ground, processing the things Dumbledore had said. As he did this Ron and Hermione joined hands and gave individual smiles to Dumbledore who winked back in reply as Harry lifted up his head.

"I know what I have to do now."

"Then do it."

"But why? You said you were happy enough here." Harry pursued another act of negotiation with Dumbledore, knowing what would soon come. He tried to fight back the stinging sensation behind his eyes.

"Yet things have to be done Harry. And don't worry, there'll be others there. I'll say hello to them for you. Your mother and father. Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Fred, Alastor…all of them."

"Don't forget Snape. Tell him…tell him that he's forgiven." Harry asked of his headmaster, slowly raising his wand. He gave in as he felt water begin to fill his eyes.

"Of course. Now Harry. The time has come to end my life, permanently."

"I'm sorry." The tears began to roll down his cheeks.

"Don't be Harry. It had to happen someday if not now," Dumbledore assured him, "Now I want you to remember just one thing for me which will help you live your life."

"What's that?" Harry said wiping his eyes hurriedly. His wand now fully aloft and pointing at Dumbledore's portrait.

"Love."

Harry nodded, choking back his tears as he swept off his tears with the back of his hand. His wand hand trembled sending small sparks here and there. Behind him, Ron and Hermione's hand-hold slackened, Ron now had one arm around Hermione who was sobbing immensely. Ron had managed to stifle his tear-flow but now his eyes were red. Harry tightened the hold of his wand.

"Good night, sir."

Suddenly quick flashes of memories whizzed past Harry's eyes from the moment Harry and Dumbledore talked beside the Mirror of Erised right up until the former headmaster fell off the top of the Astronomy Tower.

He did it.

A thin stream of red light burst from the tip of Harry's newly repaired wand and as soon as it licked the parchment of the portrait it exploded into a ball of orange and yellow flames. Dumbledore couldn't have escaped even if he had wanted to. Instead he stared at Harry grining as the painting burned. The paper curled at the corners as the background to the image blackened. Part of it turned to soot and crumbled into the water. The flames enclosed onto the centre of the portrait as the wooden frame collapsed and broke into three pieces, dropping to the bank. Dumbledore's clothes then seemed to start burning, his robes set alight, as the flames spread further up his torso. However, as the fire reached Dumbledore's face the portrait exploded into a mass of heat and gas. He was gone. The remains of the parchment dropped to the ground and curled into a small ball of blackened, dusty material.

Harry, his face full of tears, was crying so much that he collapsed to the ground holding his head but was still just about able to tiredly flick his wand at the remains of the portrait. A jet of put out the fire. All that was left was a pile of wood and parchment, sooty and wet. A large black stain encircled the remains which used to be the painting of former head-master; Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

"Let me go to him."

Harry did not see who spoke these words yet he knew who it was once they bent down beside him and began to comfort him. He gradually began to calm and stem his tear flow to allow the person to comfort him. They wrapped their arms around him and hugged him tightly. It wasn't Ron and it wasn't Hermione.

"It's okay…I'm here."

It was Ginny.

Harry shook his fringe out of his eyes to look at Ginny who had her head against his. He could feel her breath against him as he tried so desperately to forget what had happened to focus on the present. He dropped his wand which clattered to the ground before he ran his hand through Ginny's hair.

"G-G-G-Ginny…?"

"I'm here."

"D-D-D-Dumbledore, he's…he's…" the pair closed in slightly to each other.

"I know. I saw." She spoke soothingly.

"R-R-Ron…H-Hermione…are they o-o-o-okay?"

"Yes, yes. They're okay. I'm more worried about you though."

"I-I-I-I missed you."

"Who wouldn't, hey?" she joked, tittering slightly.

"Y-Y-Y-Yeah, yeah, yeah…."

There was a temporary silence that hung in the air till Harry gained some more self-control.

"I want you to do something for me." he whispered.

"Anything."

"Hold me."

He felt completed. His body erupted with endorphins which swamped and took over him. As soon as the couple entwined a tight, locking embrace, he forgot about Voldemort, about Dumbledore…all that clouded his mind were thoughts of the angel afore him.

"I don't want to let you go."

"Neither do I but we have to."

Her beauty and personality were the only things he thought about. She was the only person in the world at that moment that truly mattered.

Then they separated. Their previously interlocked arms and fingers split and the pair opened their eyes to look upon each other before Ginny seized hold of Harry's hand tightly.

"I wish none of this ever happened. I wish we never had to be apart."

"And so do I more than you can possibly think. But we must remain strong, so ... come on."

She then helped him stand up beside her. The pair, still holding hands, then walked towards Ron and Hermione who had both settled down a great deal. Ron inclined his head and led Hermione out with him to the grassy bank above the pebbled shore, facing the Black Lake. Harry and Ginny both looked at Dumbledore's old portrait as Ginny said, "The dawn of a new era."

They then left. Leaving the magical lake behind…


	2. The Wizard Without A Name

_'Last night, the whole world was allowed to breathe a sigh of relief as Voldemort was finally defeated by the Chosen One, the Boy Who Lived, seventeen year old Harry Potter, in the closing moments of the Battle of Hogwarts. The Wizarding World has finally been relieved from the iron grip of the Death Eaters and their worshipped, serial-killing tyrant Voldemort after ten months of control. Somehow Harry was able to repel the Avada Kedavra curse for the second time in recorded history, in-front of all the warriors in the Great Hall. No-one knows how he did so and even after he seemed to be dead already. After hours of summons to the Dark Forest, half-giant Rubeus Hagrid brought back Harry's corpse to the school where students, teachers, parents and members of the Order of the Phoenix struck up another battle with the Death Eaters including Voldemort himself. Harry's body disappeared and reappeared later to kill off Voldemort, ending the battle between good and evil permanently. As soon as Voldemort died once and for all, a numerous amount of events followed in just twenty four hours. Here are the consequences of yesterday's battle which will be remembered by all and its story which will be one remembered for generations to come;_

_As soon as the battle finished last night, the Resistance had been able to capture the surviving Death Eaters, the St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries emergency team, equipped with twenty highly trained Healers, arrived on scene. The twenty did their best with their wands, antidotes and dittanies to heal the vast amount of serious injuries that both sides had received. Out of all of the survivors fortunately none of them died as a result of the expert treatment given by the long-standing employees of the British Wizarding hospital. The crippled, the paralysed, the burnt and cursed were all taken away on stretchers by Side Along Apparition. The fifty five people, both Resistors and Death Eaters, who died yesterday have had their bodies all evacuated out of the Great Hall. The 'good' corpses have not yet all been identified yet as many are grotesquely disfigured or burnt baldy in some way or another. Some of the identified have been individually buried in the Grounds by their families. The families of the following have given us permission to the highlight the deaths of;_

_Fred Weasley; "One of my greatest friends and one of the funniest people I've ever known."_

_– Lee Jordan, best friend of the Weasley twins._

_KILLED IN ACTION._

_Colin Creevey; "He ruined our practices…never mind, he was a good kid." – Oliver Wood, ex-captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team._

_DEATH BY UNKNOWN CAUSE._

_Nymphadora Tonks; "As clumsy as they come yet a fantastically kind human being."  
– Molly Weasley, close friend and member of the Order of the Phoenix. _

_MURDERED BY BELLATRIX LESTRANGE._

_Remus Lupin; "Who cares about what his condition was? Just remember a great man…" – Rubeus Hagrid, close friend and member of the Order of the Phoenix._

_MURDERED BY ANTONIN DOLOHOV._

_At the same time as the Battle of Hogwarts, there were many other more minor battles between the forces of good and evil. These included the head-quarters for each countries' Ministry where small batches of Death Eaters had infiltrated and taken over last year. When the original employees rebelled yesterday and overthrew the Death Eaters, the Ministries quickly reformed and tried to repair themselves. This included the British Ministry who sent out the whole Auror office to Hogwarts to arrest the surviving Death Eaters. The Ministry soon released a list of those who had been killed in action, those arrested and those missing who had escaped;_

_The surviving Death Eaters include;  
Avery, Amycus Carrow, Antonin Dolohov, Crabbe Senior, Fenrir Greyback, Lucius Malfoy, Rodolphus Lestrange, Selwyn, Walden MacNair and Yaxley._

_Dead Death Eaters include:  
Bellatrix Lestrange, Goyle Sr, Travers, Wilkes, Severus Snape, Thorfinn Rowle, Evan Rosier, Rabastan Lestrange, Jugson, Regulus Black, Gibbon, Alecto Carrow and Augustus Rookwood._

_Missing Death Eaters and allies:  
Gregory Goyle, Draco and Narcissa Malfoy._

The surviving Death Eaters were immediately arrested and taken to both Azkaban and Nurmenguard prisons where the Dementors have all been held in captivity. A decision will be made on what to do with them will be completed some other time. For now, Wizard Guards have now been stationed on each prison to guard the offenders until a decision on their fate has been made. There are three options;

_The Dementor's Kiss – the Dementors are reinstated and used to suck the souls of all remaining Death Eaters out, before disposing them in the wastelands._

_Ministerial Punishment – the Death Eaters are lined up and are all killed by Aurors using the Avada Kedavra curse._

_Imprisonment – their current punishment continues and they are all held in captivity for the rest of their lives._

_The decision on what to do will be decided by a new government which is planned to be brought in. It is unsure who will take over from temporary Minister; Kingsley Shacklebolt, but whoever it is will make the decision. Either that or a public referendum will be held and us British wizards and witches will decide the Death Eaters' punishment._

_The missing Death Eaters; Goyle and the Malfoys, are all now currently being hunted down by the Auror Office. Their current whereabouts is completely unknown._

_Now that the Ministry has temporarily repaired itself and heading for a reboot, it has made the defiant decision to permanently close down Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Due to the amount of damage made to both the exterior and interior and all the events that have taken place, the school is unable to be repaired due to lack of funds as most was raided or destroyed during Voldemort's reign and the battles yesterday. It now means no British wizard or witch child between the ages of eleven and seventeen will be able to attend magical education unless they move abroad. This is a major issue set to be solved after the sustainability of the government is restored._

_The Ministry are also taking drastic action to try and clear the country of pro-Voldemort supporters whose presence we have become aware of all over the country after the death of their Lord. All supporters of the Death Eaters and so on are being captured and arrested for their crimes. All are having set sentences. People are being warned that many are taking upon themselves to set fire to public buildings and cause riots in villages._

_Also, Lord Voldemort's body is due to be cremated within a huge Fiend Fyre with the other deceased Death Eaters. This will be undertaken inside the Ministry of Magic and the public are supposedly allowed to watch the event, as a sort of celebration for the end of Voldemort's reign. The date for this is also something else which is undecided._

_Finally, on a lighter note, it has come to public attention that there is going to be a national holiday on Harry Potter's birthday, the thirty-first of July, named 'Harry Potter Appreciation Day' to celebrate the teenager's heroics. For yesterday, every year, there will be a two minute silence for all those that have died._

_By Xenophilius Lovegood._

_Special Reporter, ex-editor of the Quibbler.'_

"Harry, are you finished with that?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Here you go."

Mr Weasley leant over the hospital bed to take the Daily Prophet off of Harry who had just finished reading the special report written by Luna's father who had taken the time out from looking after his daughter.

It had just turned nine, well, according to Ron's old watch it had, and the Weasleys, Hermione and Harry were at St Mungo's hospital. Harry had forgotten what ward they were all sat in as they had been squeezed in quickly due to the amount of people in the hospital being so high. All the injuries from the Battle of Hogwarts had been rushed into the building just hours earlier and still were. Each corridor and ward was filled to the brim with the hurt and their families and friends. The Weasleys were just one group, waiting for Ginny to be cleared. Her mother and father had been worried about a certain hex she had received to her stomach. Ginny had given in even after claiming it'd be better off if they all went home to Burrow because of Harry. Mr Weasley claimed the house might have been destroyed as the Death Eaters knew its whereabouts. The others dismissed this.

"Dad, I think we should go home soon." Ron murmured, leaning over Ginny.

"Why? What's wrong?" Mr Weasley asked his son across the bed.

"We think someone saw Harry over there." Ginny interrupted gesturing over to the corner of the ward where a huddle of people were around another bed. On the left was a middle-aged man with straight black hair who was trying to look over at the Weasleys to see what was going on.

"Then he would have said something surely? Maybe they didn't see him?" Bill said brushing his red hair out of his eyes before nursing a deep cut on his cheek. Fleur helped him by dabbing a piece of cloth on it which was diluted in yellow liquid which stung. Murtlap Essence.

"Maybe he'll stay quiet?" George whispered, wincing slightly as he rested his bandaged right hand on the back of Harry's chair.

"Yeah, hopefully. We don't want a riot." Hermione added getting up from her chair to stand beside Ron.

"Okay, okay. We'll head off soon once Ginny's got the all clear." Mrs Weasley slipped in hunching slightly beside her husband.

"Mum, I'm fine! It's Harry we need to worry about!"

"Shut up then Ginny!" Ron shouted in a hushed voice through gritted teeth.

"Harry are you okay about all this? Just say no if you're not. I bet you're very tired?" Mrs Weasley asked him softly.

"No, no. It's fine."

"Harry, don't lie. I know you want to go home." Ginny told him sternly. Her gaze momentarily transported him to a different planet, then he was back, and she was there waiting for an answer.

"Yeah…I, err, I want to go."

There was then silence between the family members. He felt all of their eyes upon him before he spoke again. He avoided their stares by taking another look at the mysterious black-haired man on the other side of the room that couldn't see him. The man shrugged as he saw no sign of Harry, he then returned to care for the patient on the bed.

"I…I need some sleep." Harry finished, bringing his vision back to the family in front of him.

"I'll just be a second." Mr Weasley then got up and started to walk out of the ward when a plump, brunette Healer walked through the double doors and greeted him. The pair seemed to exchange words before the Healer walked elsewhere and Mr Weasley returned.

"The Healer said we can go now. However she said everything's very busy downstairs and it'd take us too long to get out to Disapparate. Someone would probably spot Harry. It would be crazy."

"So?" Ron asked him, agitated.

"We Disapparate from here."

"But what if someone sees Harry? What if someone in here is pro-Voldemort? You know what they can be like." Ginny piped up, worried.

"If we do it quick enough no-one will notice a thing. Now, this is going to be tricky," Mr Weasley began, "Everyone get into twos. I'll go with Molly. Bill with Fleur, Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny, George and…wait…where's Percy gone?"

There was a prolonged, unnatural silence as the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione looked around them for a sign of the horn-rim spectacled Percy who had been with them when they originally arrived at the hospital.

"He disappeared about half an hour ago. I didn't get chance to ask him where he was going. I think he's left us." George identified leaving some of the family unable to say anything. Mr Weasley began to wring his hands uncomfortably as Mrs Weasley stood in a state of shock, her mouth agape as Bill put his arm around her.

"Well, erm, George you go with Ron and Hermione," Mr Weasley murmured awkwardly, "Now hold one another's hands and then on the count of three stand up and Disapparate. Yes?"

They all affirmed this with a nod and a 'yes' as they did what he said, as well as them trying to forget the fact that one of them had already left. Harry felt his stomach twist horribly when George had announced Percy's departure. Why did it have to happen again? Why had Percy left his family after what had happened? He put it to the back of his mind. Instead he turned his attention to the current situation which could potentially expose him to the entire hospital, possibly causing an massive uproar.

Harry gave a weak smile to Ginny who gave him one in return before the couple clasped each others' hands tightly. Harry wasn't prepared to risk revealing himself to the ward. He had hidden himself effectively for two hours without notice. Now would things spiral out of his control and prompt a riot? He tried to ignore these thoughts and attempted to shake them off but it didn't work. For the second time in twelve hours Harry had had the temptation to run for his life and never return. This time it wasn't Voldemort in the forest, but a hospital full of battlers, press and possibly some pro-Voldemort supporters.  
"You okay?" Ginny muttered to him shuffling off of the bed before bending down to him, the couple hid themselves behind George's stature.  
"Yeah, course…"  
"I meant about…earlier…"  
"I'm fine."  
"On the count of three." Mr Weasley had suddenly begun the countdown without warning. Harry and Ginny tightened their grip. Harry was sure Ginny would be able to feel the anxiety he suffered that physically rattled his anatomy.  
"Three."  
Harry slid off of the chair and started to rise from it. Ginny copied him. The others were already stood up and prepared to spin and disappear but they didn't have to worry like Harry did.  
"Two."  
He was now prepared to jump up and turn on the spot. His confidence was gradually building by the way of how he felt the adrenalin upsurge his body. His heart began to beat faster and faster. He was paranoid the others might even be able to hear it.  
"One."

Harry, as soon as Mr Weasley issued the one syllable, jumped to his feet, tightening his hold of Ginny's hand. But before he had any chance to spin around and Disapparate out, he was spotted.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Harry let go of Ginny's hand in shock as the black-haired man across the ward shouted his name. At this point all those in the room that were not in the beds turned to look at Weasley family. There was a moment when all in the room looked at one another in sheer confusion over what they saw. Then it happened. They all charged at the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione.

"Come on! Let's go!" Mr Weasley ordered his family before turning on the spot with Mrs Weasley. They Disapparated. The mass of people got closer to the others.

"Harry!" Ginny tugged roughly at Harry's shirt urging him to go but he could not do it. Instead he stood stock still viewing what was happening before him, the crowd of people seemed to be running and screaming in slow motion. Then, Bill and Fleur Disapparated, leaving just Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and George to go.

"Harry, we've got to leave! Harry!" Hermione screamed at him. He ignored her. His attention was drawn to the black haired man who led the riot. He seemed to of halted the crowd. He stood before them, his arms wide open, wand raised. Harry quickly noticed there was a thin, see-through force-field being expelled from the tip of the wizard's wand which seemed to stretch to both ends of the ward. The shield then expanded and wrapped around the walls, trapping the people within what looked like a glass bubble. The people inside began to scream and shout, trying their best to break through what they had been forcibly contained inside. It was near enough impossible. The visitors and patients on Harry and the Weasley's side of the bubble rushed out of the ward immediately, terrified, screaming and shouting. The five watched in horrified awe as the man turned to face them, a malicious grin upon his face, and an evil glint in his cold, dark eyes.

"I'm not staying here!" George bellowed as he Disapparated. Ginny had tried to stop him but she was left clutching the air.

"That bastard!" Ron cursed, stamping his feet.

"Harry Potter!" the mystery man took several steps forward, lowering his weapon.

Harry stayed where he was, ignoring the continuous pulls and shouts from Ginny and the others. Instead he put a shaky hand to his back pocket on the rear of his jeans. He then began to finger his wand, tightening his hold upon it. In the corner of his eye he saw Ron, Hermione and Ginny do something similar. Ginny picked up her wand from the bedside table and held it aloft, taking a few steps forward, whereas Ron and Hermione took out theirs and held them down beside them.

"Who are you?" Harry asked blankly, still removing his wand.

"What does it matter to the 'great' Harry Potter!" the man exclaimed sarcastically, emphasising his last few words before completing his sentence by spitting on the floor.

"I'd like to know the name of the man whose holding all these people hostage."

"Ah, but technically I'm not holding them hostage. You see a hostage is when you hold somebody as security for the fulfilment of a condition. You see, I don't need these people as my security for what I'm to do. I just wanted some witnesses for it." the man inched slowly forwards, holding his short, dark wand at chest level before tossing aside his greasy, black hair.

"I don't care what you think you're doing. I just want it to stop," Harry informed him, "What do you want?"

"I want to see you…dead."

"So you're not here for a visit?" Ron had joined in, taking a step towards the unknown wizard.

"Oh, 'ha, ha'. I'm guessing your Mr Potter's ginger side-kick? Weasley isn't it? Blood traitors," he spat again as he gave Ron one of the dirtiest of looks, "And before you start, we all know you!" the wizard jabbed his wand in Hermione's direction. She looked startled by this outburst, "Hermione Granger! Mudblood!"

"Leave her alone!" Ginny yelled, some sparks flew out of the tip of her wand.

"Oooh, and the girlfriend? Another Weasley! How fun?!"

"Let them all go. Let's settle this between us, just us." Harry suggested, his voice slightly cracked as he continued to ease his wand out of his back pocket. He took a brief look at the people stood behind the wizard, frantically trying to escape.

"I'd rather not. Those behind me can watch. And your friends…? Well, why don't they join in?" the wizard declared before stopping twirling his wand, "Now, dance…_EXPULSO!"_

"DUCK!"

The bed exploded. A sudden blast of air from the tip of the wizard's wand ripped the bed into two large chunks of mattress and wood that flew through the air to be repelled by the force field and onto the floor. The wizard deflected all the shards that flew at him straight at one of the walls where they smashed into smaller pieces. The duvet and pillows exploded into pieces of fluff which scattered the well-polished floor. In the meantime, Harry pushed Ginny down onto the floor and told her to hide behind the chair as Ron and Hermione skidded across the floor avoiding some rebounded debris. Harry crashed to floor as the wizard began to advance forwards flinging pieces of bed here and there to get to Harry, but the teenager was too quick and so was able to jump sideward across the main body of remains. In mid-air he swung his wand at the wizard sending a large stream of red light at him _("STUPEFY!"_), flinging the man into his own force field which slammed him onto the ground, unable to move as a large piece of wood clattered to the ground, crushing him. Harry stood up and brushed some splinters and wool off of his body before redirecting his wand at the non-moving wizard who started to stir. Harry looked behind him, he saw the worried faces of Ginny, Ron and Hermione who all stood back up and pointed their wands in the same direction. Then, the wizard used his elbows to shrug off the large plank of wood holding him down so he could get back up and see Harry. He reactively responded to Harry's counter-attack.

_"Incarcerous!"_ this spell gave the wizard the ability to launch a long, thick rope from the tip of his wand which missed Harry and hit Ginny instead, instantly bounding and dragging her down to the floor, unable to move. Harry would of bent down to release her but he didn't get the chance as the wizard shot a spark at his shoulder which threw him across the room against the back wall. Soon enough, Ron flicked his wand at the wizard; "Expelliarmus!" but the latter deflected it and the amount of force behind it struck Ron full in the face and flung him into the remains of the bed. Hermione then jumped to his aid and fired her wand at the anonymous man who sprung into the air and spiralled to the ground after she hollered, _"Lacarnum Inflamare!"_ which sent a jet of yellow flames into the ground, cracking the surface.

Harry had now got back up onto his feet and dusted himself off before standing beside Hermione. The friends then trudged nearer towards the wizard who turned onto his back and flicked his wand at a nearby bed.

_"BOMBARDA!"_

The force of the charm flipped the bed so that it rolled dangerously towards Harry and Hermione who held their wands aloft, prepared to defend themselves from harm.

"Now?" Hermione checked with Harry. He replied with a curt nod.

The pair then chorused; _"DIFFINDO!"_

The bed rolling towards them ripped cleanly into two and crashed to the ground, providing surface damage to the concrete as Harry and Hermione dropped to the floor, covering their heads with their hands so they weren't struck by any falling debris. Through his fingers Harry could see the un-named wizard jump up and smile at the carnage he had created. So, Harry pushed himself up onto his knees and aimed his wand in the wizard's direction but he was already prepared. The pair at that time exchanged hot streams of light which hit each other mid-way and bounced around the room. The effect of this caused framed portraits, jugs of water and bottles of medicine to explode all over the floor as the sheets, pillows and mattresses of other beds were tarnished. The polished floor also received some more cracks and the chair that stood beside a tied-up Ginny collapsed over her. Ron lay unconscious beside his sister coated in a layer of dust and debris. Harry then slid under a different bed as the wizard launched a spell at his feet which missed. The man then bent down and fired another hex through the gap underneath the bed Harry hid under but it struck the leg instead causing all the bedding to slide off and the frame of the bed to sag. Just before Harry was crushed under the weight of it he pushed forwards and slid straight out, colliding with the unknown wizard full on in the legs. He collapsed to the floor and dropped his wand which rolled away. Harry flew up onto his feet and kicked the man in the face, his mouth split and blood was ejected from his mouth as fresh bruise on his right cheek began to form. Harry rushed forward and picked up the man's wand but before he got chance to snap it in half the owner had stood back up and pummelled his fist into Harry's face who let go of the wand so that it was caught. To ensure Harry was unable to stop him, the mystery wizard dropkicked Harry in the stomach so that he dropped to the ground grunting as his adversary wiped the blood on his face away.

"Time to die, Harry!" the wizard arched his wand over his head and steered it in Harry's direction before bellowing, _"AVADA KEDAVRA!"_

But, Harry and the newly risen Hermione were able to launch their stunning spells squarely at the wizard's head. The man was thrown backwards and he slumped to the floor unconscious. His wand fell onto its own tip and the Killing Curse reversed up the wand, rippling the core and splitting it up into strands of wood. The remains clattered to the floor, motionless, the green light had disappeared. Harry immediately ran to Ginny and Ron. He and Hermione dropped their wands, Harry ripped apart the rope bonds holding Ginny and when she was released they hugged. Hermione gingerly touched Ron's face and he woke up, breathing heavily. She took hold of his hand and Harry and Ginny did the same, together they all began to get up. At that same time the force field surrounding the rest of the ward disappeared and all of the visitors and patients rushed forwards. The four then had chance to simply Disapparate as the hospital's patients and visitors were released. Harry's last view was of the crowd running forwards, screaming and crying with the unconscious, unknown wizard sprawled across the floor in the background, his blood and wand splattered here and there among the wreckage caused by the fight.

Everything then swirled into a mass of flying colour as Harry felt himself twist and turn violently, harsh cold air battering his face. He felt sick as the feeling of being squeezed through a rubber tube took him over. Then, it was over. He had landed on hard ground and so his knees gave way, he dropped to the floor. He felt Ginny do similar, he could smell grass, they were in a garden and realised they had escaped. They were home. They had arrived at the Burrow.

"George, you arse!"

Harry opened his eyes, rolled over and sat up to see what all the sudden commotion was all about. Harry was confused why Ron was became so angry as soon as they had landed as it took him a minute or so to realise who he was shouting at. It was George. Harry's vision was slightly blurred because his glasses had fallen off but he was still able to see the outlines of Ron and George across the familiar garden, meeting each other in the middle and what seemed like their wands in their hands. Harry looked either side of him to try and find his wand to find his glasses but there was no sign of them plus he was distracted by a tap on his shoulder. Ginny had sat down next to him. He could tell it was her by her flowing red locks.

"What's going on?" she wondered.

"Must be about George ditching us at St Mungo's."

"Oh…"

The couple then fell silent and decided to watch the ensuing conflict.

"What's up with you?" George pretended he was unsure what Ron was complaining at.

"You!" replied Ron ferociously, "You left us there! You didn't bother to help!"

"BOYS! What's the cause of all this raucous?!" Harry could see Mrs Weasley waddle into the scene between the two boys.

"George! He left us at the hospital!"

Mrs Weasley then saw her youngest son close up and spotted the cuts and bruises all over his face and hands, "What on earth happened?! What's happened to your face?! Are you okay?!"

"Some nutter imprisoned all the people on our ward and tried to kill Harry and the rest of us! George knew he was a pro-Voldemort supporter and left us anyway!"

"Don't blame me! You could of easily Disapparated yourself!" George shouted back at his younger brother.

"What?! And leave all those people there?! Trapped?! No way George, no way!" Ron took some steps forward, brandishing his wand near what Harry thought was George's nose.

"It's not my fault it happened! We couldn't of got them out! You've obviously just escaped like I did!"

"No! We stayed behind, fought the git and broke his wand! We got all the people out and that guy's unconscious!" Ron put the wand to George's chest as he to his brother.

"Oooh, Ron, acting the hero! Would of helped if you'd done something useful last night! Fred might not of died if you'd been with us!"

There was a momentary silence as the brothers exchanged deadly glances and Mrs Weasley stood aback, hand to her mouth in shock. Then Ron dropped his wand and punched George in the face, making him drop to the floor. The pair then began scrapping, throwing kicks and punches here and there, trying to hit every bit possible of one another. Mrs Weasley just stood there, Harry could hear her sobbing. Mr Weasley, Bill and Fleur soon flooded out of the house but stopped moving at the sight of the fight.. Fleur stood went to comfort Mrs Weasley as Mr Weasley dragged Ron one way and Bill did the same to George. The pair tried to fight off their relatives but the restraint kept them under control until they were entirely separated. They then calmed down and stopped trying to resist. Mr Weasley then released Ron and walked into the middle between the pair of brothers.

"What the hell is going on?!" he bellowed angrily.

"Harry, your glasses and wand," the familiar voice of Ginny drifted into Harry's hearing range so that he turned back to her and received the objects she gave to him. He quickly stashed his wand away into his jeans' pocket and jammed his glasses onto his face, now being to see the Burrow for the first time since he had left it in August last year. And how it had changed.

Ignoring the new argument between father and sons, explaining the reasons behind their fight, Harry stood up with Ginny and looked around him at the garden and house. They were in disrepair. Green grass was rare to find as the majority of foliage in the garden was blackened by burning due to some enchanted fire. Across the garden the shed was in ruins. It was now a pile of metal and wood and everything which used to reside within it. The Death Eaters, it appeared, had destroyed the shed to the extent that every object contained within it had been melted or mangled. Harry then noticed that all around the garden lay scattered all of the Weasleys' chickens, dead. Some had had their necks snapped, some hit with the Avada Kedavra curse, then, there were those who had been mutilated, their body parts deposited everywhere. Harry also saw several pieces of gnome scattered here and there. All the beautiful things which once resided in the Burrow garden had either been destroyed or killed.

Now, Harry looked upon the house. Most of the windows had been smashed, plenty of the bricks from the back wall now on the garden floor either in pieces or in piles of dust. The walls had been daubed with soot and ash from the fire that had burnt the garden. The roof had a large hole in it which lead into Ron's room. The tiles that had once covered the section of the roof could be found in various parts of the garden. Inside the house, Harry could see just the kitchen, some of the appliances had been crushed and burnt, the candles on the side tipped over, their wax strewn across the table top. The food that had been stored in the now destroyed cupboards lay on the ground, some half-eaten, some thrown across the walls like a baby would do with a meal it was dissatisfied with. There were also smashed bottles of what used to be Butterbeer and Firewhisky across the cracked floor surface, their contents coating the ground with a thin puddle of alcohol.

Once Harry finished viewing the destruction of the Burrow, it seemed Mr Weasley had finished interrogating his two sons as they were all walking into the Burrow kitchen before turning into the living room. Ginny tugged on Harry's jacket.

"Come on, let's go inside."

Harry nodded before following Ginny through the vandalised kitchen, tip-toeing around the excess debris until they got to the living room, pushing through a wooden door that had been gratified in chickens' blood, ('BLOOD TRAITORS'), its handle missing. Harry and Ginny, after now viewing the living room, concluded their expectations about what the rest of the Burrow might look like.

The sofa had large chunks of it removed, the pillows had been shredded, their contents strewn across the floor. The armchairs had holes in them, some of the wooden legs had been snapped, causing them to sag. The carpet was stained with alcohol, much of it ripped up, scratched wooden floorboards were on show. The nails that were stuck into them were painful to stand on. The chandelier hanging from the ceiling, usually full of candles, was hanging loosely by its chain. A lot of the candles were on the floor as well as a smattering of glass that formed part of the chandelier's body. On the fireplace all of the moving photographs had been shoved off and broken on the carpet, the mirror hanging above, it's glass missing. The strange clock that told where members of the Weasley family were and what kind of situation they were in, had been dismantled. Many of the names bent or snapped, discarded on the floor. Smeared on the walls in what looked like the same chicken blood that had been used to write upon the living room door were the words; 'GINGER SCUM', 'MUGGLE LOVERS', and 'ABOMINATIONS'.

"Our home…" Mrs Weasley shrank into the corner of the ripped up settee, her face red as she cried.

"Don't worry my dear…" Mr Weasley placed a comforting arm around his wife, "We can fix it."

"I think we're going to need a couple more dustpans and brushes mum." Bill's attempt to lighten the mood saw his mother chuckle slightly through her tears.

There was a momentary silence as the Weasleys and Harry began to settle themselves, exhausted, into seats in the living room before Ron piped up, "Where's Hermione?"

As Ron asked this question Harry's eyes hastily darted around the room to identify one of his best friends but was unable to. Come to think about it, Harry didn't recall even seeing Hermione once since he returned to the Burrow.

"Where is she? Is she still outside?" Ron quizzed his family and Harry who all shared looks of confusement.

"Ron…I think everybody can I agree with me here but…I haven't seen her since we got back. I thought she came back with you, Harry and Ginny?" Mr Weasley checked with Ron who then replied with;

"I'm sure she Disapparated with me! I had hold of her hand when we turned…!" Ron's words were then lost allowing Harry to intervene and state, "Ron, I think we need to go back to St Mungo's."

"Stay here. We'll go."

Harry conjectured to Ginny before he and Ron raced out into the back garden, their wands ready. When the two ambled out of the gate they grasped one another's hand and turned on the spot, Disapparating immediately. After a short time of blurred vision, spiralling amounts of various colours and the pressure on their lungs, Harry and Ron crashed down on their knees on the cold hard floor of the ward they had left only minutes previously. They had returned to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries to face an unexpected hubbub of noise and movement.

Harry opened his eyes to see a crowd of people surround him and Ron in the ward they had fought the mystery wizard in. People were screaming and chanting his name, singing songs that he didn't know the lyrics too. Journalists and photographers were everywhere, lights were flashing everywhere Harry looked. People with floating notebooks and quills were trying to push through the crowd to ask both Harry and Ron a ridiculous amount of questions. But Harry couldn't stand the abrupt attention he had gained. Soon enough he pulled Ron up with him to push and shove their way through the thickening crowd of media, vistors and patients to get to a more spacious place to think. However Harry and Ron were soon surrounded again unable to move. Eventually, they were pinned up against a wall as lights flashed and people shouted until Harry and Ron realised they were just metres away from the exit. Cleverly, the two managed to slip underneath one rather large man's legs before kicking the double doors open and running out into the corrdiors.

Harry and Ron then sprinted to the end of the corridor and barged their way through the doors there, pushing aside Healers and random patients as they winded they made their way through the twist and turns of the hospital. In the background they could hear the mob of people who had attacked them in the ward just before advance nearer. Harry and Ron knew they couldn't get distracted and slow down because they had to find Hermione to get out of there. Soon enough the crowd had grew close enough to be right behind the pair but Ron successfully managed to acquire a hiding spot for the pair of them, side by side in an alcove.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Harry vociferated as Ron dragged him into the alcove with him.

"We need to go back to the ward. Hermione might have been in there and we didn't realise." Ron explained, tousling his wavy, red hair.

"Right, fine, okay. Let's go!" Harry rapped friendly on Ron's arm. The two then turned on their heels and sprinted back up the corridor they had come down and back into the ward they had been in. Lay on the ground was the mysterious wizard who had been left after their departure. But there was no sign of Hermione.

"Shouldn't someone come and move him?" Ron raised an eyebrow as they moved towards the non-moving Voldemort supporter.

"Probably not been able to. Especially if the place has been packed full of that lot." Harry talked of the crowd of people that had mobbed him and Ron as he poked the man on the floor with his big toe.

"Think he'll wake up?" Ron queried.

"I hope not. I wanna avoid wrecking anymore of this place."

Ron exhaled a sarcastic 'ha' before turning with Harry to look at the damage that they had left behind them.

The polished floor was full of cracks, littered with large chunks of wood and metal and lots of tiny bits of wool from the pillows and duvets. The remains of the two beds that they destroyed lay in big piles in the middle of the ward.

"Yeah…now, Hermione… If she's not here? Where is she?"

"Erm," Ron started, "Maybe she's gone back to the Burrow when he got here. I mean, where would she go in this place?"

"No idea. We best look around before any nutters find her first."

"I do hope you're not talking about me."

The unknown wizard on the floor that they had defeated, had regained consciousness.

Ron and Harry whipped around quickly to see the man jump up and face them with a malicious glint in his eye, wiping his greasy black hair out of his eyes as he did so.

"Your wand's broken. You can't fight us. You lost when we knocked you out." Harry told him sternly.

"That's what you think," he hissed spitefully.

"Where's Hermione?!" Ron rushed forwards and grabbed the wizard's throat, slamming him against the wall. The wizard laughed; "I don't know! I've been unconscious haven't I?"

"Ron, let him go!"

"Who are you anyway?!" Ron bayed down the man's ear so that spit splattered over his face.

"Just a servant to my Lord."

"What's your name?" Harry asked more clearly.

"Fine, I'll tell you…it's…it's Peter Pettigrew." The man began to laugh hysterically. Harry and Ron, with lightening speed, applied their fists to the man's face simultaneously so that the madman collapsed onto the ground, his temple bleeding slightly and his eye blacked.

"Why won't you tell us your name?!" Harry's hand shook violently, blasting a hole into the wall next to the mystery man with use of his wand which trembled between his fingers, "Maybe I don't want to." He choked, rubbing some of the blood off of his head.

"If you don't tell us I'll make you." Harry leant the tip of his wand against the wizard's forehead.

"Make me then." The wizard grinned.

"Fine, _Imper…!"_

The wizard then quickly withdrew a small, jagged silver dagger from his robes and slashed at Harry's right leg, the skin of which split spraying blood onto the floor as the wizard kicked Harry to the floor before accelerating down the ward. As Harry groaned, nursing his profusely bleeding leg as Ron swung around and fired a spell from his wand at the wizard.

_"CASUS!"_

A blast of energy from the tip of Ron's wand struck the back of the wizard's legs causing him to crash to ground. The wizard's arms being outstretched as he fell saw a few of the bones in his right arm break cleanly into two. As Ron bent down to tend to his wounded best friend, the wizard struggled to get up as one the bones in his arm stuck out at awkward angle. Harry's jeans were stained brown as a small pool of blood trickled from underneath Harry's leg. Ron carefully aimed his wand near to Harry's injury to perform, _"Diffindo!"_, so that he could tear of the bottom half of the trouser leg off to examine the damage caused to Harry's leg. The incision was deep and at least three inches wide oozing out an incredible amount of blood.

"That's a battle scar an' half mate," Ron gasped tenderly wiping off some of the blood off of Harry's leg using a clean hankerchief that he spotted lying nearby.

"You don't say. Did you get him?" Harry replied wincing as Ron let go of his leg.

"Yep. He's broke his arm on the fall." Ron explained.

"Good…deserved it," Harry brushed his wound accidentally causing him to squirm as the injury made his leg seer awfully, "Agh, damn! Think I might've severed a nerve."

"If you'd severed a nerve you wouldn't feel your leg at all. We have nerves to sense stimulus such as pain. It's just a bad cut, really."

Ron and Harry looked down the corridor to see Hermione walk towards them, the double doors still swinging after she walked through them. As Hermione approached Harry and Ron a team of robed wizards burst through the double doors and made their way over to the pro-Voldemort supporter.

"What the…?" Ron's face showed his vivid bemusement.

"Aurors." Hermione said simply.

"That's where you were…? The Ministry?" Harry checked with Hermione.

"I thought it'd best to get there straight away so that git could be arrested."

"You should have said something before we left." Ron apprised Hermione.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking." Hermione apologised.

"No, it's fine, you just got us worried is all." Ron reassured her.

The trio then looked upon the semi-conscious wizard who was been handled by the Aurors. One Auror magically locked a pair of metal handcuffs onto the wizard's hands which were crossed behind his back. Two other Aurors patted the man down to remove anything from his person they deemed possibly of Dark Magic. They didn't find anything but did discard his bloody dagger to one side as its owner began to regain consciousness but another Auror took out a vial of a dark potion which she uncorked and poured its contents down the new prisoner's throat so that he succumbed to unsconscious. Harry realised the man had been given a heavy dose of Sleeping Draught so he wouldn't be able to resist his restraints.

Ron and Hermione then mutually agreed to help Harry up. Though he whimpered several times as his friends propped up him between then he was able to limp slowly with them to join the Aurors and the unconscious wizard. One of the Aurors, a medium-sized wizard of regular build with short, dark brown hair stepped aside from his colleagues to talk to the trio.

"Mr Potter, Mr Weasley, Miss Granger…do any of you need to be taken care of here?" the Auror's eyes lingered on Harry's bleeding leg.

"Don't worry about me." Harry said identifying the Auror's gesture to his leg injury.

"Certain about that?"

"Ron's mum's able to heal up wounds and anyway, the staff here are busy enough as it is."

The Auror acknowledged Harry's point with a shrug before continuing, "Miss Granger you did the correct thing in alerting us about his man. I imagine things could have been much worse otherwise."

"You were my first port of call." Hermione opined.

"What we'd like to know, however, is why the three of you were here in the first place. You do understand that nearly every witch and wizard, whether it has positive or negative purposes, wants time with the Golden Trio."

"The Golden what?" Ron ejaculated.

"The Golden Trio," the Auror repeated, "It's what the three of you have been dubbed since your year-long combined efforts managed to bring down You Know Who and his followers. You're famous than you think. For both the right and the wrong reasons."

"Right…" Harry sighed as he failed to contemplate the new information about his and his friends new-found popularity with any thoughts that made sense.

"Now, why were you here in the first place?" the Auror grilled them.

"My sister was being checked over for injuries when that nutter tried to kill us." Ron let the Auror know.

"Understandable. Well, don't worry about him anymore. He's safely under Ministry control now." The Auror stated as he was dragged away by another, a shorter, plumper man who whispered into his ear. Behind the two Aurors Harry realised their colleagues had taken out a brown flask from the mystery wizard's inside pocket. The Auror the trio had been speaking to returned to them.

"We've just found Polyjuice potion on this man. By the looks of it there's nothing left of it. Judging by the size of the flask his dose has probably lasted a few hours or so. Probably wearing off now. Once it does we should be able to identify him properly. For now, you three should get off and we'll get word to you of who this wizard is. Might be a while. Ministry's a mess." The Auror relayed this information quickly, not allowing the trio to get a word in edgeways. Instead of attempting to engage further conversation with the Auror, Hermione and Ron guided Harry towards the double doors which led into the corridor. Unfortunately though as they were near to opening up the exit they heard the rumble of footsteps and voices owned by many.

The crowd of wizards and witches from the media, the visitors and patients of St Mungo's as well as members of the general public that had harassed Ron and Harry earlier had accumulated themselves around the exit to the ward. _"Sonorus!" _Harry had his wand against his throat as he performed the charm that magnified his voice twice its normal volume so that it could be heard through the double doors.

_"LEAVE ME ALONE!"_ Harry's booming voice echoed. The crowd fell silent instantaneously. Behind Harry he could tell all the Aurors had lowered their wands and stepped away from the mystery wizard to watch what was happening.

"Harry, Harry!" a chirpy, high-pitched voiced male reporter called out, "What really happened in the Forbidden Forest?!"

There was a temporary silence on either side of the double doors as Harry decided to refuse answering any of the media's questions. As this first reporter had asked his question the remainder of the crowd then felt like they had been given the confidence to start propelling an assortment of questions for Harry, Ron and Hermione to answer.

"Everybody at Hogwarts saw the Killing Curse rebound onto You Know Who in your last duel! Why does this keep happening to you, Harry?!"  
"HARRY POTTER! Were you really dead?! I thought no spell could bring back the dead?!"

"RON! What part did you play in the bringing down of You Know Who?!"

"MISS GRANGER, MISS GRANGER?! Can you hear me?! Is it true you disguised yourself as Bellatrix Lestrange to get into Gringotts bank?!"

"Harry, what do you think about the death of Severus Snape?! Do you think the traitor deserved what he got?!"

Harry had been adjusting how he stood between Ron and Hermione, ignoring the majority of the assault of questions being fired at him until that particular one caught his attention. Harry stopped manouvering on the spot to call out in his magnified voice, "WHO WAS THAT?! WHO ASKED THAT?!" he bellowed. Harry, alike Hermione and Ron, thought he had recognised the voice that had asked the question. As Harry had spoken, the journalists and others in the crowd fell silent but the female voice did not answer so Harry shuffled out from between Ron and Hermione and gestured for them to open up the double doors on his behalf. He then limped into the doorframe. The throng of people had now formed a semicircle from one side of the exit to the other facing Harry, waiting patiently for him to speak. Ron and Hermione took Harry's arms again to support him as he spoke to the huddle of people.

Harry removed the magnifying charm on the volume of his voice so that he was able to ask the pack of people in his normal, much calmer tone of voice, "Who asked me the question about Snape?"

After a moment or two without any sound or movement from the group of media, public and hospital visitors and patients, and now even Healers, the woman who had spoken up stepped forward. A middle-aged woman with blonde, curly hair and a heavily jawed face wore faded magenta coloured robes with maroon furs at the collar and sleeves. There were many rhinestones missing off of her glasses and her two-inch chipped nails were painted red. She clutched a crocodile-skin handbag as an acid green Quick-Quotes quill and notepad floated near to her head, ready to write. Rita Skeeter's recent unemployment appeared to still be having negative consequences on her usual crisp, perfectly fashioned appearance as she shifted several strands of her now lank hair to one side before meeting Harry's unnerving stare.

"Rita Skeeter." Harry cocked his jaw, agitated at Rita's return to media world.

"Harry…" as Harry's gaze upon her hardened, she twitched and avoided his glare as the Quick-Quotes quill vibrated, hovering its point just above the surface of the notepad.

"Just because the war's over doesn't mean things between us are." Harry notified Rita.

"People want to know the truth about what's been wrecking their lives, Harry. All I want is answers."

"All you want is a story to sell, Rita, and I'm not giving you one."  
"I assure you I've seen the error of my ways and-."

Harry interrupted her, "You've seen sense then Rita?!"

"If that's what you want to call it then yes."

"Its right though. What you were doing had no sense. You were hurting people, Rita. The way you twisted our words and made so many look so bad when they weren't. If you've stopped then you've seen sense haven't you? You've realised annoying and destroying people is wrong?"

Rita Skeeter gulped and began to turn rather red as her fellow reporters and the other members of the crowd gave her some disapproving looks as they realised who she was and at how Harry disseminated her, "I, err…I'm not hear to twist what you say in any way. Not during these times, Harry. I promise you."

"How can I believe you?"

"Like most, ignoring my usual personality traits, I realise the gravitas of our situation. For once my readers deserve the honest truth even if it isn't what they want to hear."

"Unemployment's changed you hasn't it?"

"No…", Rita went slightly redder as she admitted, "It'd be the courage of a seventeen year old that did that."

"What did you want to know?" Harry said, dismissing the truthfulness of Rita of how she had changed her ways in honour of the bravery he displayed in defeating Voldemort single-handedly.

"Severus Snape's…he was a traitor to the Order of the Phoenix who hated your father, worked for You Know Who and killed Albus Dumbledore. I'd like to hear your thoughts on his reported death."

"I'd just like you to get the word around that he wasn't a traitor. He didn't really work for You Know Who and killed Dumbledore on Dumbledore's own bequest. Now if that's all-?" Harry briefly summarised his overall message to clear Snape's name before planning to quickly Disapparate with Ron and Hermione who kept him on his feet as blood trickled down his wounded leg. The crowd abruptly went hysterical as Harry made his statement. Questions were then being hurled at Harry all at once. The unexpected noise of the peoples ahead of him managed to displace Harry out of Ron and Hermione's arms as he jumped. The crowd converged tighter around the trio but Rita Skeeter managed to be in front of the others, now closer to Harry.

"Harry is what you're saying true?!" Rita quizzed him.

"Yes!" Harry shouted, "Snape was a double agent! He died a hero!"

"HARRY?! How can you say these things?! After everything he's done?!" another reporter called out.

"If it wasn't for him I'd be dead!"

"Harry! Harry! You're saying Snape wasn't really a Death Eater then?!" yet another reporter interjected.  
"HE WORKED FOR US! TRUST ME! FORGET EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVED TRUE ABOUT HIM AND LISTEN TO ME!"

"Harry…are you sure about this?" Rita Skeeter wondered in a quieter, more subtle tone to Harry who replied by barking;

"TELL EVERBODY! EVERBODY THAT WILL HEAR YOU! SEVERUS SNAPE WAS A GREAT MAN!"

As Harry spoke Rita's Quick-Quotes quill barely ever left the page it was writing on as it scribbled away eccentrically. All around Harry cameras began to flash in his face as reporters and others shouted at the top of the voices and congregated closer to the trio. Harry decided in his head that he'd done what he needed to prove to the public about Snape's innocence. Harry had good faith that those present with him would go onto inform others so that the Wizarding World would become aware of Snape's heroics. Harry had planned to clear Snape's name previously without consent from anybody else and now that he had done so felt elated. He was happy he had been able to prompt a widespread demolisment of united hatred against Severus Snape because of what that wizard had done to benefit him. Snape had saved Harry's life in the past and had risked his own to work for the Order and Dumbledore to help Harry to eventually defeat Voldemort. Snape realised his mistake in telling Voldemort about Sybill Trelawney's prophecy and had repaid for this through his efforts as a double agent. Harry also thought that clearing the name of his former Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts professor would be sufficient enough to show his pity and gratitude to the man who was in unrequited love with Lily Potter, whose murder he accidentally caused, and had died after furthering Harry in his mission to kill Voldemort. Harry, as he took hold of Ron and Hermione's hands, thought to himself how he was more than glad at being able to help provide Snape with dignity in death, hoping the man himself would appreciate what Harry had done for him.

"MR POTTER!" the Auror who had been speaking to Harry, Ron and Hermione was just behind them, "THE MAN'S RETURNING TO HIS NORMAL SELF! WE'LL BE IN CONTACT WHEN WE IDENTIFY HIM!"

Harry then dropped his thoughts of Snape as he returned to reality and apted to focus on his Disapparation from St Mungo's. In a second Ron and Hermione had rotated Harry on his good leg with them as they disappeared from the hospital and reappared back at the Burrow.

The three of them fell to their knees again, banging them against what felt like wooden floorboards. Harry opened his eyes and realised he was kneeling in Ron's bedroom but before he could properly feel the blistering pain that shot up his bleeding leg, Ron and Hermione pulled him up and put him onto Ron's bed. When sat comfortably enough on his friend's bed, Harry looked around Ron's room to see what damage had been inflicted to it. The bed Harry sat back on had holes in it, tufts of cotton strewn on the floor. The carpet had been ripped up and was now missing, leaving the floor bare and covered in nails. Ron's wardrobe mirror was cracked and the door handle snapped off. The bedroom door had a large rip in it like someone had thrown an axe through it, the wood chips scattered on the ground in tiny pieces. Some of Ron's posters had been torn and the walls written on in red like 'SCUM'. Harry also noticed that the pipes weren't rattling with the sound of the ghoul and in the corner, lying on the floor was Ron's pet owl; Pigwidgeon. He was dead.

"Oh Pig…" Ron breathed out in sadness.

"Ron…the ghoul…I think they got rid of it." Hermione added rubbing Ron's shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Harry muttered.

"Don't worry mate, it's okay. Bloody owl took the piss anyway." Ron lied jokingly as he bent down to pick up Pigwidgeon. Hermione and Harry exchanged looks and remained quiet as Ron cradled the bird as he took it over to his scratched, dented desk and placed it down carefully.

"So…" Hermione said, breaking the trio's new found silence, "What's next?"

The Ministry of Magic's Atrium had suffered severely through intense magical damage which had left it looking impossible to rebuild. The grates to the fireplaces, which employees used to travel by Floo powder in, had either been melted or ripped apart and strewn on the ground. The grates lay within pool of ink whose former containers lay smashed here and there. The different coloured inks had stained and drenched many of the thousands of pieces of parchment found burnt, torn and crumpled upon the ground. Most of the chandeliers on the ceiling had been struck down, showering their diamonds and candles everywhere, their main frames had collapsed and with impact on the previously polished floor, had created various forms of crater-like fissures. The walls were plastered in wanted posters still with Harry's face reading 'Undesirable Number One'. This was because the Death Eaters had placed them there with Permanent Sticking charms, yet, the resistance of Ministry employees had scrawled across the walls with ink with phrases like; 'LONG LIVE HARRY POTTER!' or 'YOU KNOW WHO TO HELL!'. Though the Atrium had been subject to such abuse none of the employees made an attempt to clear up debris or to repair anything. Instead, the majority of them found themselves watching a particular man deliver a speech at the front of the Atrium to a small crowd of reporters. The man in question was Kingsley Shacklebolt and he stood now upon a small platform that had been set up especially for the occasion. He look fatigued, bags were under his reddened eyes, his hat which usually sat in a jaunty position was askew and his golden ear-ring was missing. The recent battle had left him bruised and scarred facially but more or less injury free. Kingsley refrained from reflecting the possible physical and emotional pains he felt but instead stood authoritatively in his gold-lined, deep purple robes. He raised his hands to cease the noise of chatter around the Atrium which came from the Ministry employees and the press. The media then began a tirade of camera flashing as Kingsley's lips parted to speak;

"In the past twenty four hours this world has faced greater threats than ever before. Across our country, across the entire world, hundreds of people have been victim to murder and destruction wherever they turned. Many people have died in the battles that have taken place in the Ministries, in the houses and in the schools…" Kingsley paused as Hogwarts crossed his mind.

"These tragedies, however, were short lived. They stopped as a result of the intervention of one boy. One boy that sacrificed his own life to save that of everybody else's. In order to rescue this world one seventeen year old wizard wandered into the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and surrendered to Lord Voldemort. Not even the best of wizards would have done such a thing. But he did. And he saved us all. Thanks to Harry Potter, we live on," he cleared his throat before continuing, "This country has seen such terrible things. Our people have witnessed the biggest event in wizarding history but now that it is over someone needs to take control. But really, not just someone, but more than one person. And if you have not yet noticed, there is more than one person in this establishment? I am sure you get my point." He asked the audience.

"Exactly. This Ministry was weak. It was so weak it gave way to Voldemort and his supporters. They took control meaning they controlled our country. For the past twelve months we've been defenceless as our Minister was dead and no-one was brave enough to fight back. But now we have the Ministry back. And we will reform it. Improve it. This Ministry returns to its normal state, this Ministry stays…strong.

No one can stand in our way to reform our Ministry. We must do it. We must fight to bring back what we had. We must return the peace. We must bring back order. The Ministry of Magic is returning and for the better. The Death Eaters are under our control now, Lord Voldemort is dead. Everything is back to normal, everything is improving and getting gradually better.

Yet, there are those out there, people, people who think that it is right, that it is morale to support the serial killing tyrant that once ruled this land. There are still people out there who believe in evil. Who believe good is wrong. Who want Muggles dead. This must be stopped. We must clear the towns, the cities… everywhere of evil. No sign of Voldemort shall be left. All supporters of the Death Eater regime shall be imprisoned as soon as possible.

So, together, let us fight. Let us break through the barriers that are restraining us from going free to change our world for the better. Let us renovate for the future. There are people out there whose lives have been torn apart, their homes destroyed, they need help. They need us to help them. Or else they die alone or they struggle hopelessly for the rest of their lives.

There are people out there who are doubters. Who do not believe we can change for the better. Those who think we can't help them but we can…if we try. And we will try, and if someone doesn't I will make them because I tell you now, my sworn duty is to protect. I might be temporary but I do not care. As long as I am standing as Minister for Magic, your world will be safe from danger.

Dear Harry, if you can hear me, I want you to listen to me carefully. For all your life you've fought desperately on your own to clear our world of evil but now we are here to save you from that trouble. You can't fight this battle on your own Harry, it's too strong. You need our help. Let us help. Let us save ourselves from falling backwards, straight back into the shadows. We are the Ministry of Magic and Harry Potter…we support you."

As soon as Kingsley finished his speech, there was a massive roar of approval followed by a long period of furious clapping, cameras started to flash energetically onto his face. He lifted a hand to the audience before exiting to his left, down the steps of the platform towards one of his colleagues, a gangly man with hair that parted symmetrically on his fringe, who happened to be the provisional Head of the Auror Office, Neville Shepsworth. Before Shepsworth spoke they both walked at speed towards the lifts, the press followed them like a moth to the flame. When they arrived at the lifts they noticed that one had its grille doors had been bent, through it Kingsley could see the controls were smashed up. They instead went into the second lift as Shepsworth spoke.

"I must say, sir, that was a smashing speech you just made."

"Thank you Shepsworh but I must be getting on." Kingsley babbled tapping buttons on the lift wall.

"I'm sorry to prevent from continuing your business, Minister, but the Office has been handed a very problematic situation this morning that my colleagues believe you should have deep involvement with."

"Trouble already? Don't tell me, pro-Voldemort supporters?"

"Just one but a big one I must say," Shepsworth began, "One Hermione Granger Apparated straight into our office earlier today and took with her a team of Aurors to St Mungo's. The Aurors brought back a man who had been disguising himself with Polyjuice Potion trying to kill Harry Potter."

"You're joking?! Are Harry and the others okay?! I'm guessing he'll be tried immediately? Are you and your office going to undertake this case?"

"Yes, yes they are all completely safe and well. Yes and no. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement is taking the case but…they want you to be High Court Judge. Some of the Aurors believe they've seen this man before somewhere but we can't identify him yet."

"Why's that then?"

"We can't find the paperwork." Shepworth sighed.

"Have a look around, it might be hiding somewhere in the rubble…anyway, when's this supposed to take place? How long do we have before we charge him?"

"Court proceedings start in about five minutes, Minister." The lift came to a halt as Shepsworth completed this sentence.

"Excuse me?" Kingsley blurted out.

"Five minutes, sir." Shepsworth repeared

"And we don't know who he is?" Kingsley quizzed him as the lift doors clanged open.

"We'll still have to send him down. Until we find his name we'll just have to refer to him as the Prisoner."

Courtroom Ten, the same courtroom used for Harry's trial nearly three years previously, looked completely different than it once did. Evidently the Death Eaters had done their fair share of vandalism to this room just like the rest of the Ministry of Magic. The large hanging chandeliers were now missing, some of its materials dotted around the room on the benches and on the floor. In their place were some big, floating candles now hovered in the air, spreading their dim light across the large room. The floor had been cracked and ripped up alike the walls of the court which were smeared in some kind of blood. Some of the benches were also missing, they seemed to of been ripped apart the day before by some hex or another. The first two rows which were usually taken up by the jury were absent but the debris they left behind from their destruction had been swept by some Ministry employees. The chair that used to sit in the middle of the courtroom was also missing, the chains that used to restrain its victims lay discarded on the floor. In their places there were now two platforms, one for the defendant and one for the prosecutors, plus a small box near where the Wizengamot used to reside, set up for witnesses. Today in court, it was more or less empty. The only people in the room included the un-named wizard who was being restrained by two Aurors plus three members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Shepsworth and Kingsley. The proceedings were now being finished off.

"Considering we do not know the name of the convict as he will not inform us and we will not defy our own rules to use the Imperius Curse and have run out of supplies for Veritaserum, we cannot properly punish him with a prolonged sentence. Until we discover his identity, meaning his criminal record and relationship with the Death Eaters, he will be remanded in custody until our next re-trial. This will be in undertaken by the Australian Ministry of Magic and their Minister as our international records from that country have a single image of this man. Our international colleagues promise us that they should be able to discover who this man is if we cannot. Until then, Aurors, take him away." Kingsley stated loudly before gesturing to the Aurors to take the wizard away. The prisoner, whose face he had covered with his hood, was then dragged out of the court with little resistance as the court looked upon him with disgust.

Azkaban Prison. Home to the criminals of the wizarding world, it stood solemnly and silently in the middle of the sea. Steel grey waves crashed upon the sides of the discoloured concrete building with its many barred windows as the sky darkened and rumbled with the sound of thunder and lightening. Tall and heavily protected by unbelievable magic, Dementors and highly trained wizard guards, Azkaban Prison was impossible to escape from. In the past, wizards trained in the dark arts had once escaped because security had slipped and the Dementors swapped their loyalties. But now, security was at an all time high and the only way that any of Azkaban's prisoners could escape would be if a dangerous wizard managed to enter the compound. The latest prisoners to be placed into Azkaban were probably the most volatile yet and some of them had been there before and had escaped. Just one of them to escape could endanger the entire wizarding world because they had been Voldemort's followers and had been arrested for such terrible crimes. The prisoners were the surviving Death Eaters from the battle at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Murderers of innocent men, women and children, the Death Eaters were the most devoted to that of He Who Must Not Be Named.

"_On the count of practicing the dark arts, do you find the defendants guilty or not guilty?"_

_"Guilty."_

_"On the count of the torture, false imprisonment and mass-murder of an innumerable amount of wizards, witches and Muggles, do you find the defendants guilty or not guilty?"_

_"Guilty."_

_"So, I hereby sentence the Death Eaters; Avery, Carrow, Crabbe, Dolohov, Greyback, Lestrange, MacNair, Malfoy and Yaxley to death by Wizard Execution."_

Lucius Malfoy woke up startled from his nightmares. Cold beads of sweat trickled down his pale white face as he sat up in the cell he resided in. Slowly, Lucius dragged the back of his right hand across his forehead wiping off the sweat before remembering why he had woken up. The reason being that he had dreamt about the day the Ministry of Magic jury had sentenced him to death. Lucius, ever since he had become a Death Eater, hadbeen afraid of death. When he joined the fellowship that devoted themselves to Voldemort, Lucius knew that it was risking his life and so he began from that day twenty seven years ago, fearing for it. For many years Lucius had been selfish and just cared about what would happen to him but then he met the love of his life and became a father, that's what made his certain death look more worrying. Lucius, his wife Narcissa and their son Draco had attempted to flee from the aftermath of the war but Lucius had been injured and was caught easily. Narcissa and Draco however, following Lucius' adamant commands, left without him.

For many years, Lucius, with Narcissa and Draco, had lived somewhat happier than he had been due to absence of the Dark Lord but then he returned and used and abused them all for himself. Draco was sixteen years old when Voldemort told him he had to kill Albus Dumbledore or he would get killed himself and Lucius hated that. He hated the fact that Voldemort thought he had the right to blackmail his son with death threats and then try to control everything he did after escaping prison. Though once he had respected the Dark Lord for his mistreatment of what Lucius considered inferior to the human race, he now loathed him, even in death, for what he had done to him and his family. Lucius had always been afraid of death and his sentencing to it left him mentally scarred. Everytime he fell to sleep he remembered the fateful moment when he was sent down and taken away from Courtroom Ten. During his dreams Lucius felt the pain of dread, anger and sadness he had felt as the Dementors followed him out of the Ministry. Lucius already was suffering from a multitude of negative emotions which were enhanced by his prison guards, the Dementors being creatures that consume all positivity to replace with nothingness.

The room Lucius now found himself in was rather small and square and bore four murky green walls and two wooden benches between which was a grimy chamber pot. Lucius was now sat up on his bench that was rigid and uncomfortable to sit on never mind sleep on. Lucius shared his cell with Yaxley, the wizard who was a part of the Ministry infiltration and later joined in the battle of Hogwarts. In Lucius' opinon, he found Yaxley an imbecile, and one he could not put up with.

"Morning Malfoy," Yaxley yawned tugging at his mass of straggly hair, "Dreaming again I see?"

"Shut up, Yaxley. What happens to me has got nothing to do with you." Snarled Lucius.

"But it has…we're cell mates are we not? And don't forget…most importantly, both Death Eaters."

"Not anymore we're not Yaxley. Do not forget the Dark Lord is dead. Therefore the Death Eaters do not exist anymore. Unless he is brought back to life which is, might I say, impossible."

Yaxley didn't reply but he coughed instead and looked away from Lucius who became instantly suspicious.

"Something you want to say?" Lucius enquired.

"You're wrong."

"What?"

"I said you're wrong about him."

"What are you trying to say Yaxley? It's impossible and you know that full well. Potter destroyed all the Horcruxes and rebounded the Avada Kedavra curse upon the Dark Lord. He defeated him once and for all."

"That's not what I've heard," Yaxley began, "If you didn't know I am educated in many things and I was part of the Ministry, so I am aware of how it is…potentially possible. What I heard I believe to be fact, Lucius, so you should listen. If you do and we get out of here and bring him back we can wreak revenge on all those that imprisoned us and murdered our friends."

"I don't believe a word of this rubbish. You have heard lies from strangers within the Ministry that have given you false hope for revenge. And anyway, I wouldn't want him back after the way he treated my family and I. The last twelve months with that 'monster' flitting in and out of my house was a total nightmare." Lucius complained.

"Thing is Malfoy…if we were to resurrect the Dark Lord personally he would grant us the highest respect."

"Your plans are loosely based on rumours that will lead you into grave peril Yaxley. And even if they were full proof, I would like to have no part in it whatsoever."

"Don't you even want to hear what it's all about Malfoy or you going to carry on being dismissive?"

"I don't know if I can take you talking anymore Yaxley. You're a fool."

"If the Dark Lord was returned to his normal state the things he could for us Malfoy in return…"

"Like what exactly?" Malfoy spat.

"What do you think Malfoy you dolt?" Yaxley responded quickly.

"I don't know."

"Revenge."

"As in what?"

Yaxley began, "Potter and the rest of them. They killed our friends and imprisoned us and sent our closest mad. They deserve payback for what they did."

"We kill Potter? Original…"

"Of course."

"But don't you think it's slightly improbable considering our current predicament. Do you even know who could help us with such an arduous task?"

Yaxley scratched his forehead to fill a short pause between what Malfoy had said and what he planned to reply with.

"I know who…and I know he'll come for us and when he does he can help us. He knows things others don't, not even things the Dark Lord knew."

"Who is he?" Malfoy asked.

"Je…"

Yaxley's mouth was abruptly smothered in a black cloth gag as Malfoy cricked his neck turning quickly around to see a burly prison guard pointing his wand at Yaxley.

"Discussion of Dark Art plans intending to harm the newly restored Magical World will lead to the bringing forward of Wizard Execution plus solitary confinement. Yaxley, you have been verbally warned."

"I hope I am not to be associated with this warning?" Malfoy wondered.

"Watch out Malfoy."

The prison guard walked away as Yaxley's gag was removed.

"Yaxley. Start at the beginning. Tell me who can help us and what we do to achieve it and then I might possibly take the idea into consideration."


	3. Back At The Burrow

Silence. The soundtrack of mourning was in the air but nobody except one was listening to it. Nearly every single living soul in the house was in a deep sleep excluding the one spectating the movements of their watch. Eventually the crooked black hand of the watch ticked into place for the time of six o'clock. Sunrise was being admired through the thin gap in the maroon curtains by eyes. Eyes that were emerald green and blinking in the fresh light of a brand new day. Those eyes that watched another day come belonged to that of a young man who was grieving the loss of those close to him. Bright sunlight beamed inside the bedroom to glitter and dance upon shiny surfaces including a pair of black, battered glasses that were taped together at the nosepiece. These glasses weren't being worn, not yet, but when he felt like getting up properly then the youngster in the bed would put his glasses on but for now he lay watching the ceiling, waiting for the right time, for the cockerel to sing and the sun to properly rise. He was impatient. Harry Potter sat up in his orange quilted bed before swivelling round and putting his feet onto the ground. Harry slid on his navy blue slippers, threw on his cotton dressing gown around him, stood up and began to walk to the dresser in the room. Cold were his hands, Harry tiptoed whilst stretching his skinny fingers towards the brass handle of the dresser that seemed to be coated in rust. Creakily, the dresser drawer eased open for Harry to plunge in his hand and seize what he needed. Memories. Harry grabbed several newspapers and a large album. Wooden floorboards creaking ever so slightly, Harry made his way back towards his bed, his feet getting rather cold. So, instead of waiting another few steps until his feet could warm up, Harry bent his knees and jumped easily onto the bed past the cracked mirror. Harry got under his orange quilt, rustling into a comfortable position. Then, after propping up his pillow, Harry rifled through his newspapers before finding the one he wanted to read. After a short period of searching through the pile of musty papers, Harry took out one and before even reading it the headline caught his eyes though he had read it so many times. It was the headline that relieved the whole of his world;

_'YOU KNOW WHO IS DEAD'._

And Harry was the murderer.

Before reading onwards Harry began to wonder, as he usually did, on whether he was a murderer or not. It was difficult to decide but because of what he did, saving the whole of his world from being overruled and destroyed, he assumed the decision would be easy and obvious to make…but it wasn't. You Know Who was what people used to call Harry's former nemesis because he put enough fear into people to make too scared to even say his name and he did it without even being alive at one point but not any more. Harry had never refused to say his name as he would never bow down to the animosity that the dark wizard shrouded the Wizarding World in. Lord Voldemort, the darkest and most ruthful wizard for over 50 years had attempted to take over the Wizarding World and kill Harry but had. Sometimes Harry knew he was right in killing Voldemort and stopping him but then he considered that he'd been wrong in murdering him. By doing so did that make Harry just as sinful as Voldemort was? Despite this, Harry knew he had had no other choice because of the prophecy that had written out his life for him. _"Neither can live while the other survives," _as told by Sybill Trelawney herself.

Harry's thoughts about Voldemort then unexpectedly consumed him. Skeletal and white with red slits as eyes, an image of Voldemort in his head tried to touch Harry with his spider like hands but Harry rubbed his eyes hard enough for Voldemort's face to swim into nothingness.

Harry realised he was sweating and his bony hands were shaking so wiped the moisture on his brow and clenched his fists to try to prevent them from trembling. Trying not to think about what he had just envisaged, Harry began to read the short article by Xenophilius Lovegood that was dotted with moving pictures including one that was just under the bold headline. It was of a huge hall with many things around it, the majority lay down on the ground. The caption read; '_Bodies in Hogwarts' Great Hall'. _Harry gulped. He began to read the article again;

'Yesterday, the entire magical world celebrated the death of You Know Who, who was successfully killed by Harry Potter at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The school's students, professors, parents and the Order of the Phoenix watched the Chosen One finally defeat the wizard who murdered his parents, Lily and James Potter. On the same day that a vault at Gringotts bank was broken into and one of its dragons released, You Know Who and his followers, the Death Eaters, attacked Hogwarts. As the school was being run by Death Eaters, including traitor Severus Snape, the Carrow siblings found that Harry Potter was in the school looking for something and so they contacted You Know Who. When You Know and his followers gathered at Hogwarts they began to wage a war upon its students and professors and after some time the parents and the secretive Order of the Phoenix had arrived and joined in. Later on in the battle, and after many demands from You Know Who for Harry Potter to surrender, the teenager's body was brought in by fellow friend and half-giant, Rubeus Hagrid. Harry Potter was supposedly deceased but his body disappeared and later reappeared to finish off You Know Who. Survivors of the battle witnessed an amazing showdown between the two legendary wizards before a killing curse rebounded off Harry and hit You Know Who, finishing him.

_Nobody knows how the killing curse rebounded off Harry but it seems it is similar to what happened to him when he first became known at the age of one when his parents died and he got a lighting bolt scar on his forehead._

_A full list of the dead is on page 3 as part of our 'Hogwarts Tribute' to the unlucky warriors who were killed by Death Eaters in the war. All the bodies have now been identified and are set to be buried by their relatives in either Hogwarts' grounds or their chosen burial place. Rest in peace to the Fallen, we as a world miss you sorely and admire the bravery you produced, thank you._

_By Xenophilius Lovegood._

Harry's mind was suddenly swamped with images of the people he grieved but not of them happy, as they always were, but of their dead bodies. Without noticing it, Harry's eyes were filling up with tears that started to roll down his cheeks. He didn't like to see them like that in his head but he couldn't help it so tried to change his thoughts by flicking the page over on the newspaper so it showed the list of the dead that the article had noted about. Every name had an image of the person looking particularly pleasant and a message from someone close to them. Harry liked that, as he believed that people that have died should be remembered as they usually were. When Harry first received this paper on the day after the battle it took him a while to find the names he wanted but then it had become instinctive and it didn't take him long as they were all together, so now he read them.

Fred Weasley. Born 1978 – Died 1998. Aged 20.

"Fred was more than my twin brother. He was my best friend…my partner in crime. I 'm not sure whether I'll be able to pull a prank like we used to anymore."

George Weasley, twin brother.

Remus Lupin. Born 1960 – Died 1998. Aged 38.

"Remus always saw the best in everyone but himself. Even though he was different than many he was great friend and an even better husband and father."

Bill Weasley, friend.

Nymphadora Tonks. Born 1972 – 1998. Aged 26.

"Tonks was what everybody needed during these times. She was funny and jokey and helped a lot of people feel better about themselves. She won't be forgotten."

Ginny Weasley, friend.

Colin Creevey. Born 1981 – Died 1998. Aged 16.

"My big brother was annoying but I still loved him. Who's going to take stupid photographs of me, huh? He didn't' deserve what he got and I miss him."

Dennis Creevey, brother.

Harry couldn't help but continue to weep quietly into hands, no matter what he did he couldn't stem the flow of tears. Again and again, Harry had done the same thing virtually everytime his eyes casted a glance about the article. Usually Harry stopped crying after a little while and then the sick twist of guilt kicked in because of the guilt Harry felt. He thought he was responsible for his friends' deaths like he did for everyone that had died. Even the people that died fighting against Harry, he felt like they didn't deserve to die even if they did try to kill him. There were so many that had sacrificed or lost their lives for the sake of Harry's and he could only feel wholly responsible for them all.

Harry felt like crying again but it seemed he couldn't anymore…instead he felt like a cold knife was being twisted through his heart making him feel sick. His mum and dad, Dumbledore, Sirius and Snape were the people who made him who he was and they were all dead at the hand of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He would have loved to have grown up with a normal childhood behind him. Harry began to imagine what life would be like if Voldemort had never existed. Harry had always fantasised about such a life and once again did so about how it would be with his mum and dad and Sirius visiting and all of them enjoying their lives together. Then, at school maybe Dumbledore would still be there being his wonderful self and there would be Snape. Severus Snape, the man who loathed Harry's father but loved his mother Lily so much that regrettably he helped Harry throughout his entire schoollife without him even knowing. He had always hated Snape when he was Potions master at school, when he killed Dumbledore and especially when he took over Hogwarts as headmaster as Voldemort's loyal servant but it turned out in the end that he was just faking the whole thing and was spying on Voldemort for information to give to Dumbledore so he could help Harry. As well as that, Snape planned to kill Dumbledore with him because Dumbledore was dying after attempting to destroy Voldemort's Horcrux ring. Snape was dead now because Voldemort killed him via the snake Nagini. Harry would never forget how Snape helped keep him alive and imagined what that man would have been like if Harry's mother Lily hadn't died. Would he still hate Harry for being like his father James or would he accept Harry, being Lily's son, because he wouldn't have to blame the teen for the death of the love of his life.  
Thing was people didn't know about Snape's bravery and loyalty and assumed him a traitor of the Order and Dumbledore's killer but hopefully Harry's message to the press, staff and public at St Mungo's had spread to the far corners of the world to clear Snape's dirtied name so that people could see him as the hero he really was.

_'SURVIVING DEATH EATERS IMPRISONED'_, was the headline emblazoned in bold font on the front of the next issue of the Daily Prophet that Harry picked up from the pile on his lap. Once again, Harry started to pore over the article he'd repeatedly read, an extended version of the bullet point from the earlier article he had read in the hospital;  
_'Followers of You Know Who that survived the Battle of Hogwarts' the other day were immediately arrested by Ministry of Magic's Aurors who put the members of the dark cult on trial just yesterday. All the remaining Death Eaters have been either sentenced to Execution or the Dementor's Kiss. The Dementor's kiss for those who do not know is when the guards of Azkaban Prison for wizards suck out a wizard's soul via the mouth. The person does not die but is left soulless, and empty shell of their former self. Also, the punishment of said wizards sees the return of the Execution. It was used more commonly before the introduction of the Dementors and is now only used for the worst recurring criminals in large numbers. The procedure is carried out normally by three Aurors who're allocated to one criminal where they have express permission to use the Avada Kedavra curse._

_It is undecided which of the following Death Eaters will receive either punishment but rumours that are circulating suggest it is most likely to be Execution for all of them._

_The surviving Death Eaters include;  
Avery, Am. Carrow, Crabbe, Dolohov, Greyback, Lestrange, MacNair, L. Malfoy, Selwyn and Yaxley (MAIN) plus miscellaneous._

_Dead Death Eaters include: _

_Al. Carrow, Gibbon, Goyle, Jugson, B. Lestrange, R. Lestrange, Rookwood, Rosier, Rowle, Snape, Travers and Wilkes (MAIN) plus miscellaneous._

_Missing Death Eaters and allies:  
Gregory Goyle, Draco and Narcissa Malfoy (MAIN) plus miscellaneous._

It was a frightening prospect. The idea that were still many Death Eaters and pro-Voldemort supporters out there in the world. Who knows what kind of things they still believed they could do? What if they joined together? What if they attempted to revolt against a gradually recovering world? How would the hastily reforming and partially destroyed Wizarding world put up a fight against another revolution so soon? Would something like that happen? Or would the Ministry be one step ahead and prevent anything else from happening by those who were left. Harry couldn't bare to think about it much longer. Just the plain fact that people who followed Voldemort were still out there was horrifying.

On his lap lay Harry's photo album that was rather big, chocolate coloured and leather bound and it had a strange engraved insignia on the front cover. Touching the book Harry felt a large sense of nostalgia fly through him as he remembered the person who gave it him and when. It was the end of his first year of Hogwarts and just days after he had defeated Voldemort for the first time. He was about to board the Hogwarts Express when Hagrid came up to him to say goodbye. At that moment Hagrid pulled out the album that Harry held in his hands now six years later, and gave it to him. Inside the album were many pictures of Harry, his mum and dad and other friends. Harry had also added his own images and rearranged the album to suit him. Harry flipped over the first page to see an image of the original Order of the Phoenix, which had been given to him by Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody. Of course, Harry's eyes immediately darted to his parents who stood next to each other with wide, smiley faces. Harry always saw them like this in all the pictures he owned but who knows what they looked like when Voldemort killed them in cold blood. Shuddering, Harry changed his view to look at his old headmaster from Hogwarts because his bright blue eyes were shining under his half-moon spectacles that were perched on his crooked nose. Albus Dumbledore was much younger looking than when Harry knew him. In this picture he still had auburn hair and less wrinkles but he had that smile that Harry knew all too well.  
A short distance away from his dead professor, Harry set eyes on his godfather, Sirius. Harry's first impressions of Sirius were that he was a murderer and had betrayed his parents but it turned out Sirius was his loving godfather who fell through the Veil in the Death Room in the Department of Mysteries. Sirius was smirking, occasionally shaking his shoulder length black hair away from his eyes, winking at the camera. _'Good old Sirius',_ Harry thought as he turned to look at Remus, Remus Lupin. The werewolf who taught Harry to fight Dementors was one of James and Lily's closest friends and remained one of Harry's favourite mentors. His advice never failed to work. Moving on, Harry saw Mad-Eye Moody, the ex-Auror with the revolving electric blue eye but in this picture he didn't have it. Back in the day Moody was a little saner than when Harry knew him but knew everything about the Dark Arts and how to deal with them. He was always the wizard who was ready to fight and it was rather a sad coincidence he died in battle courtesy of Voldemort himself. Watery blue eyes blinking, Peter Pettigrew, or Wormtail as he was known, stood near Sirius and Remus. Dead also, Harry felt a glimmer of remorse for Wormtail because that's what he did for him as he died strangling himself with his silver hand. He had once betrayed Harry's parents and become Voldemort's right hand man but Harry still pitied him.

Before turning over to a different page in the photo-album, Harry looked at Hagrid who was stood at the back of the photo. He was half-giant but probably the gentlest man in the world. Harry had known him ever since he turned eleven years old all that time ago when Hagrid broke down the door of the cottage Harry and the Dursleys were at, hiding from the onslaught of Hogwarts letters. On that night Harry found out he was a wizard and that none other than Voldemort killed his parents. If it wasn't for Hagrid, Harry would have never known the truth until he went to Hogwarts for the first time. Smiling, Harry flipped over the parchment page and saw the next picture. The picture was of Lily and James' wedding reception and in it were the married couple and two guests who Harry knew before even looking at them. In and around the photo of the large golden dance floor were Sirius and Remus. Both of them were looking merry and red-faced, dancing erratically together. They were singing drunkenly with bottles of half-empty Firewhisky bottles when Harry noticed his mum and dad sweep past them, dancing a little more elegantly. James and Lily were attemptly to dance as smoothly and as sophisticatedly as possible with nearly no mistakes. The only ones made were those by James who had a habit of accidentally stepping on Lily's toes. Though he was smiling, Harry could always tell his dad was nervous because he kept pushing up his glasses or twiddling his bow tie. Facing James was his new wife, Lily. Her eyes were exactly like Harry's, emerald green ovals, and she was wearing a beautiful, crystal white dress that swept the floor gracefully as she danced. Lily's silky, ginger hair swung from side to side as she danced with James. When she turned to the camera she smiled directly at Harry who felt her love tear its way through him. Harry gave her a smile back but of course she would never know he did.

Harry turned to the next page of the album. Brown, orange and red leaves flew around the photograph as a married couple stood kissing and hugging each other. Newly married by the looks of it, the image contained James and Lily again. The cold harsh wind that was contained within their setting wafted their hair about as they snuggled together in their coats, hats and gloves, clumsily dancing around the park they were in. Not at all like the dancing they did at their wedding, Lily and James manoeuvred around a large marble fountain that had water trickling down itself and into the basin attached to it. This was Harry's favourite picture of his parents but he didn't know why, it just was. Harry also wondered where this park was. Was it in Godric's Hollow? Harry would never know unless he spent his time searching for it, which he couldn't be bothered doing because he'd rather enjoy the mystery of it all. Harry used to keep this photograph in a frame because he loved it so much but then he smashed it accidentally and so since kept it in that album thinking it'd be safer there. Lily and James' dying act was to protect Harry so he felt like the only good thing he could do for them was to keep pictures of them safe. Harry felt good about that. Harry gazed avidly at his parents' image before flicking over the next page and when he did it he received a short burst of razor sharp pain. A paper cut. Tiny droplets of crimson appeared on Harry's index finger so he gingerly licked it off with his tongue before turning to look at the new photograph.

Rosy cheeked and looking cheerful were three schoolchildren. It was Harry accompanied by Ron and Hermione in a photograph that Hagrid had taken on the last day of their first year of Hogwarts and then unknown to Harry, put it into the album. The trio looked happy and Harry knew why. It wasn't because they were delighted to of finished examinations but to be alive after their encounter with Lord Voldemort for the first time. Though they were joyous Harry saw his hand bandaged and Ron and Hermione's faces slightly grazed, but he didn't care. He knew from that day that Voldemort would never kill them and he was right because after six years since that first encounter all three of they were alive, well and living with each other.

Ever since Saturday, the day of the battle, Harry and Hermione had been living in the Burrow with the Weasley family and Hermione. In the household the Weasley's were grieving the loss of Fred but some of them were doing their very best to try and carry on living as normally as possible. Harry was then living with Ron, Hermione, Mr and Mrs Weasley, George, Bill, Fleur, Charlie and Ginny. Ginny, the girl that Harry loved so very much. The two had freely expressed their feelings for one another in recent years but the last twelve months had seen them apart. Since moving into the Burrow with Hermione, Harry and Ginny hadn't had time to talk about anything because of Fred's death. Harry had decided he'd leave Ginny to mourn her brother until she was ready. Everyday he saw her and everyday he just wanted to be with her for as long as possible to talk absolute rubbish and to hug and kiss. Harry turned the pages in his album one final time to look at himself with Ginny. It had been taken a while back when they were dating in Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. Harry couldn't help but look at the picture everyday. They were in the Gryffindor common room and they were sat together with Ginny lying her head on his lap while he stroked her wonderful red hair. Harry remembered that moment perfectly and adored the image just as much as he did of the one of his parents. Harry closed the large photo album once again and placed the newspapers on top of it before picking them all up,sitting up in his bed and making his way back to the dresser drawer and to drop his pile of memories back into it. On the way back from the dresser, for no reason, Harry stared into the mirror that stood near his bed. It was several years old, dusty in places and had a crack in the corner. Harry sleepily gazed at his reflection as he, without looking, picked up his glasses and shoved them onto his face.

Was the reflection Harry saw before him that of a hero? Back in the day the wizards and witches of his world knew him as the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One and recently; Undesirable Number One, but now they called him a hero? This was because he had defeated Voldemort once and for all but he didn't feel like a hero, just a normal boy who killed an abnormal wizard. Harry gazed at his reflection and pondered through his mind, was the image before him that of a hero? Heroes were tall, dark and handsome but Harry looked nothing of the sort. Harry was a scrawny, bespectacled youngster who wore glasses. Harry's hair was messy, jet-black and stuck up in various places. It was rather long and his fringe was draped over his lightning bolt scar. The scar that was a mark of a dark curse being put on him, Voldemort attempting to kill him when he killed his parents. Harry had always, in some way, liked his 'trademark' scar because it looked peculiar something that Harry was in comparison. But at times he also hated it because when Voldemort was near or felt a powerful emotion, Harry's scar hurt. The pain could range from a twinge to a dull ache and then to agony that resembled his skull being broken apart many times by a red hot poker. Just thinking about the awful pain he'd previously suffered due to the scar gave Harry the shivers momentarily. Harry was now wearing his glasses. His first and only ever pair of glasses that the Dursleys had been made to buy him when his vision became so impaired during his early childhood. His scar wasn't the only thing that had suffered through years of trauma, so had Harry's glasses whose crooked nose piece was bound in Sellotape and Spellotape. Beneath Harry's spectacles were his eyes. The eyes that were identical to his mother Lily's. Sparkling emerald green ovals that shone in the dark like traffic lights. The face Harry's eyes belonged to was pale and thin like the rest of his body. Though he had gained weight and grown since meeting Mrs Weasley's cooking, Harry was still a skinny, short teenager with knobbly knees. Those knees were cut and bruised but nobody ever saw them because of the clothes he wore. Originally Dudley's, Harry wore the baggy clothes his cousin grew out of quickly as a result of his ever-expanding waistline. At the time Harry wasn't wearing Dudley's old pyjamas anymore though but ones that Mrs Weasley has knitted for him. They were made of crimson cotton and Harry's initials were embroidered on the top in black thread. On the chest pocket was an embroidered lighting bolt scar like the one upon Harry's forehead.

Harry didn't look like a hero at all and definitely didn't feel like one but no matter how much he objected the claims made by those around him and put himself down he knew he would be still called one. So, for now, Harry could no nothing but accept this title of his.

Tick-tock. Harry yawned silently before looking at his watch. Gold and dented on the back. The watch Harry wore belonged to Mrs Weasley's brother, Fabian Prewett who had been previously murdered by the Death Eaters. Watches like this were given to wizards when they became seventeen years old and that was what Harry was. In over two months Harry would be eighteen. Such a young age to have survived death twice, resurrect and to have killed the darkest wizard to ever live. What a life Harry had had. Death had always been terrifying for Harry but now that he had seen so much it affect those who lived so little, he had promises himself to waste any remaining time that he had. Recently it'd become a habit to frequently check the time. It was six fifty eight. Ron would be up soon at the sound of the enchanted alarm clock so Harry took off his glasses. Then he lay down on his bed and stared at the Chudley Cannons poster until the clock chimed. He didn't really want Ron to know what he had been doing.

RING! RING!

Seven o'clock, time to wake up. Time for a new day.

It was nearly five minutes before Ron stopped snoring like a pig and grumpily flicked his wand at the alarm clock, shutting it off in a mere second. Bleary eyed and tousle haired, Ron sat up into a slouching position against his headboard.

"Good morning, Ron." Harry said jumping out of bed and into his slippers once more.

Grunting, Ron replied, "Yeah, morning. Sleep alright? I heard noises."

"Course. No idea what you're on about. You?"

"Me what?"

"Sleep okay?" Harry murmured putting on his dressing gown.

"Mmm."

Harry took this as a yes. Ron wasn't exactly a morning person.

"Good to know…is that breakfast being made?" Harry sniffed. He could smell the distinct scent of Mrs Weasley's cooking. Ron being a fan of food inhaled the aroma before exclaiming, "Brilliant, lets go down!"

Harry grinned as he saw Ron trudge out of the room rubbing his eyes, following the scent of what smelled like bacon. Was an English breakfast on the menu? Harry hoped so, he felt a bit ravenous after not eating very much at the previous meal time. Dragging his feet in tiredness, Harry seized the door handle and walked out onto the Burrow landing. Then he stood still for a moment pondering whether he'd forgotten something. And he had.

Since the battle, Harry never went anywhere without his wand and today he'd left it on his bedside table. Knowing nothing could harm him, a neurotic Harry wandered back to Ron's room, picked up his wand and put it in his pocket. Harry went to exit the room again when he heard voice from downstairs in the Weasley's kitchen. All the Weasleys, except for Ginny and Hermione, were there cooking breakfast.

"Decided come and help us make breakfast?" George's sarcastic voice floated through the floor of Ron's room, "Shame it's already been done."

"George, it's only seven in the morning y'know?" Ron's voice retaliated in a grumpy tone, something which he was prone to be like in the mornings.

"Still, some of us were up at five." George quipped.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're lazy."

"How's that then?" Ron queried.

"Some of us are up early to get things that need to be done, done. You however find it best to sleep in." George stated indignantly.

"George, I don't see what the problem is?" Ron spluttered, baffled.

"Its just annoying that there's things to do and you aren't up ready to do them."

"Like what?"

"Like finding Percy or burying our brother!"

There was a temporary silence between the two brothers before Ron responded, "I'm sorry, alright? I can't help it if I'm tired. I think I've been through a lot more than you."

"OH REALLY?!" George roared.

"Boys!" Mrs Weasley cried at her children, realising an argument was ensuing.

"What's going on?! George? Ron?" Mr Weasley cottoned on.

"George is making something out of nothing, that's what!" Ron argued.

"Oh no it's not, it's you not helping!"

"Can the pair of you please just calm down and talk rationally! This isn't the time for arguments in the family!" Mr Weasley ordered his sons.

"I'm just saying that Ron's had it easy these past twelve months away from us and needs to do something, anything at least!"

"I'VE HAD IT EASY?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT WE'VE BEEN THROUGH?!" Ron bellowed.

"What?! Camping?! Sounds terrible!" George used his sarcastic tone again.

"OH PISS OFF GEORGE!" there was then a slam of a door which Harry assumed Ron had walked out through in anger. The argument about events past caught Harry offguard so that he found himself stood steady, one foot out of the bedroom, his mouth open as multiple flashbacks, including one of Fred's dead body, flashed by him. His thoughts were then disturbed by a female voice.

"Harry, was somebody shouting?" It was Hermione who had just exited Ginny's bedroom to face Harry with a perplexed expression.

"Yeah…"

Hermione noticed Harry was looking a little out of things, "Harry? Are you alright?"

Harry then clicked who he was speaking to you and resuming his version of normality, "Oh…sorry, yeah, I'm fine. Good morning."

"Yeah…morning," Hermione said, "So who was it?"

"Ron and George."

"Ah…about Fred?"

"In a way…sort of…yeah."

"Ron's got some terrible anger issues."

"He's your boyfriend." Harry chuckled.

"Shut up." Hermione slapped Harry on the arm jokingly. The pair of them started to laugh for a little while but stopped all of a sudden. The door to Ginny's room opened to reveal its owner. Ginger hair trailing behind her like a red sea, Ginny stepped out of her room looking as beautiful as ever. Harry felt like his insides had been taken on a roller-coaster journey.

"See you downstairs." Hermione ran down the stairs. It seemed she was deliberately trying to get Harry and Ginny alone together. But they weren't ready. The two of them hadn't spoken or been together alone since the battle, three days ago. Harry wanted to talk to her and tell her everything he felt about her. He loved her and he wanted to say it but his throat was dry and stopping him from saying anything.

"Morning." Ginny yawned.

"Morning." Harry replied rather hoarsely.

"Nice day isn't it?"

"Yeah."

Harry knew he should say something but his courage was lacking. Luckily, Ginny said the thing Harry wanted to say, "We need to talk."

"I know."

"So, when?"

"Sooner the better, I think."

"Me too."

Harry gazed dreamily into Ginny's eyes and she did the same thing back. Her hand was dangling beside her and Harry wanted to hold it. And that's what he got to do because Ginny extended it.

"Hold it…You're not leaving my sights."

"You missed me then?"

"Don't be silly. Of course I didn't."

Harry took hold of Ginny's hand and together they walked down the Burrow's staircase towards the kitchen.

Until they reached vicinity of the Weasley kitchen, Harry and Ginny held each other's hands before letting go.

"Are we a private thing then?" Ginny giggled.

"For now. I think it's a bit too soon to start parading around together, don't you?"

"I guess…"

Harry and Ginny then walked into the Burrow kitchen one after the other.

"Morning everyone!" Harry forced himself to shout heartily when he entered the kitchen.

"Ah, Harry! Good morning. Oh, and Ginny you're up as well, good, good," Mr Weasley said as he walked around the kitchen, a half-eaten slice of toast in his mouth and a open newspaper in his left hand, "I think there's a space on the table for two more."

Harry peered over Mr Weasley's shoulder and saw the two spaces that were free on the table where he saw Bill, Fleur, George and Charlie sitting and chatting. Harry went over to sit between Charlie and Fleur whereas Ginny went to sit facing him between Bill and George.

"'Ello Harry." Fleur greeted Harry.

"Hiya Fleur. You okay?"

"Yes, vot 'bout you?"

"I'm okay I guess. What's on the menu?"

"Bacon, sausages, eggs, pretty much everything. Vot vould you like?"

"Everything, I'm starving." Harry groaned rubbing his stomach lightly.

"I knew you'd be hungry, you did not eat much last night."

Shiny burn marks on his bare arms and a few dozen scratches on his face, Charlie interrupted Fleur and Harry's conversation, "Erm, Fleur, aren't you and my brother going back to your cottage today?"

Bill joined in the conversation, absent-mindedly stroking his hair which his mother had recently cut shorter against his protests, "Nah, we're gonna stick around for a while."

"Any reason why?"

"Me and Fleur want to look after mum with you lot for a bit longer. She's a mess."

"I noticed." Charlie whispered as his mother came close to him with a tray of freshly cooked breakfast.

Twenty minutes later, after everyone had finished his or her breakfast Ron and Hermione entered the kitchen from the back door. Harry quickly realised Ron had stormed out into the garden and Hermione had found him there and managed to calm him down. As they came into the kitchen George left the table soon followed by Charlie. Ron and Hermione then filled those seats but before they spoke Bill and Fleur drifted off the table too.

"I've been thinking about things…" Hermione said tucking into a slice of toast she procured from the worktop.

"Don't you always?" Harry sipped his glass of Pumpkin Juice.

"Hilarious Harry but I'm being serious."

"So…what is it?"

"I've decided its time for me to go and find my parents."

Harry had not been taking his best friend seriously but now he was because she'd mentioned her parents. The people she made forget about her and sent off to Australia with new identities. She had never really talked about them since the previous summer.

"Okay, I'm not going to stop you but you'll need help. Australia's a big country and your parents could be anywhere."

"I know. I don't believe I didn't select their destination in Australia. I just sent them there and didn't give it a second thought. To be honest I really do need your help…and Ron's of course." She cocked her head towards her boyfriend.

"I'm sure the three of us can find them. It may be difficult but I swear to you Hermione I'll do what it takes to help."

"Thanks."

"My pleasure."

"What was all that about then?" Ron, who'd been concentrating on scraping his plate of cooked breakfast clean, noticed Harry and Hermione talking.

"Oh, Hermione's decided its time for her to search for her parents and I said the two of us would help."

"Right, sure. But where we gonna start? Australia's a…"

"Big country? I know, but we've got to help her."

"I know, I didn't say I wouldn't help. I'd do anything for her."

"Exactly, I think we should start as soon as possible."

"Brilliant." Hermione was delighted at the news that her boyfriend and bestfriend were prepared to do what they could to help her out.

"First thing's first though, we'll need to get a map and dig up some information about whatever you renamed your parents." Ron declared with an air of authority.

"Mr and Mrs Wilkins?" Harry said.

"Yeah, yeah. So, when are we going to start looking?" Ron asked.

"As soon as possible…after dinner?" Hermione suggested for Harry and Ron to nod in agreement, "I really hope we find them though…I really miss them."

"I promise you we will, Hermione." Ron told her confidently with a reassuring smile.

"Thanks…both of you."

"No problem." Harry said.

Ron looked across the table to see what was beside his sister Ginny before enjoining, "Pass us some of that toast sis?"

"Yeah, sure." Ginny said picking up a slice of toast that resided on a plate near her arm and tossing it to Ron who looked at Harry and Hermione, who were facing him, with a look of surprise before muttering.

"That's a bit weird. She'd usually tell me to piss off." Ron raised his eyebrows as he slouched back into his chair, munching on his toast.

Hermione turned to Harry as Ron stared at the ceiling and whispered, "Ron's right," she glanced over at Ginny who had been observing Harry until Hermione looked her way, "Something's making her nice to her brother. Couldn't know what it is, Harry?"

Harry came into eye-contact with Hermione for a second before averting her look as he felt colour rise in his face as he mumbled, "Course not."  
"Sure you didn't say anything of significance in your little rendezvous earlier?"

Harry pulled the collar of his shirt away from his sweating neck, "I dunno…I might have done…"

"Thought as much," beamed Hermione, "Just try and prevent letting Ron know just yet. I think he'd become paranoid about it if you let him know now while he is the way he is at the moment. Yes?"

"Obviously, sure," Harry agreed, "So you're fine with it then?"

"Definitely. You two deserve each other. You've got a lot to catch up on too."

Harry issued a guffaw, "Exactly. Thanks, Hermione."

"As you said, no problem." Hermione winked.

Harry then resumed his previous activity which Ginny copied. They sat admiring one another from across the kitchen table for the remainder of Ron's eating time.

The rest of that day of the Burrow saw nothing much occurring. The adults sat and talked in the living room with multiple mugs of tea whilst Harry and the others played some Quidditch down at the paddock for a couple of hours in the morning, during which Charlie and George clashed brooms and both ended up injured. Charlie had managed to smack his face into the solid ground and gain a black eye whereas his brother acquired a variety of cuts down his right leg. After lunch, as Charlie and George were medicated and treated by their mother, everybody joined to finish up clearing up the garden. In the previous two days they had used their magic to repair, dispose and clean of everything damaged and dirtied in the house before beginning in the garden in the afternoon of the day before. The rest of the garden only took around two to three hours to clean up and by the time it was completed Mrs Weasley was ready to start preparing for tea. Tea at the Burrow with the Weasleys and Hermione was always like a special occasion because of the food that was made and the amount of people that dined. Tonight was no different. Mrs Weasley with help from Ginny, Hermione and Fleur were cooking in the kitchen whilst the men set up the dinner tables, like they used to, in the garden. Outside Bill, Ron and Harry were stood awaiting instructions from Mr Weasley.

"Who's up for doing the tables then today?" he instituted.

"Not George that's for sure." Ron muttered under his breath.

"Me and Harry'll do it." Bill claimed.

"Okay then. Get started, I need to check on how long food's going to be."

Harry had never put the tables together but he was sure he'd be able to manage such a task.

"On the count of three then Harry." Bill took out his wand that was quite short, the shaft bent a little with a tuft of dragon hearstring poking out of the tip.

The two of them then turned to the two wooden tables that stood a few feet away from them. Then, with a swish and flick of their wands, they chorused, "Wingardium Leviosa!" and both the tables elevated and floated towards each other. CLUNK! The tables bashed together and fell onto the grass with a soft thud, aligned perfectly.

"I think we did an alright job there." Bill ruffled Harry's hair before waving his wand around to lift up the chairs and place them strategically around the table.

When Bill finished this Ron reluctantly levitated the knives, forks and spoons from the kitchen window ledge and placed them onto the table. Thing was they weren't all in the right place or were stuck vertically into the table and then Harry spotted something, "Hey, Ron, you forgot the table cloth." Harry pointed at the white bundle on the ledge.

"Sack it. It's only a silly table cloth?"

"Your mum might mind though."

Ron's eyes widened, "Ah…you're right there!"

Chuckling to himself, Harry went over to Charlie who had sat come out to sit cross-legged one of the chairs Bill had strategically placed around the two tables.

"How you feeling Charlie?"

"I've been better, but I'm alright. How're you?"

"I'm okay. I'm…getting there."

Charlie nodded, "It's gonna take a long time for the world to repair itself so I wouldn't threat."

"Planning on going back to Romania do you know?"

"Hopefully in the long run, but for now, no."

"Any idea how they're getting on?"

"The ones who weren't stolen by the Death Eaters there are a little more relaxed now the fighting's over."

"The Death Eaters stole your dragons?" Harry reeled in shock.

"Yeah. They wanted to use them as weapons in the war but I don't think they could control them. They're too used to the trainers like me. Death Eaters never stood a chance." Charlie explained.

"Do you miss them?"

"Definitely," Charlie's face reflected what he thought, his smile had faltered into a frown, "Especially the old favourite."

"You're not talking about-?"

Harry was cut off by Charlie, "Norberta?! Sure I am! She's one of the main ones I get to look after. She's struggling a bit at the moment but if she ends up passing away I'll make sure we let Hagrid know."

"You think she's going to die?" Harry catechised.

"I'm not sure. Six and a half's not exactly young for a dragon and she's having trouble flying now. Still…her babies, well, I say babies, they're doing well." Charlie was visibly sombre by thinking about Norberta the Norwegian Ridgeback's difficulties. Harry had come to understand how close Charlie was with the dragons. They weren't just his job but a big part of his life too. The fact one of the dragons he's reared for six years and a half years might be dying had obviously upset him and probably didn't help to the feelings he was already experiencing with his brother's death looming over him. Harry gave Charlie an encouraging pat on the back before getting onto his feet.

"I'm sure she'll get better."

"I hope so." Charlie exhaled.

Harry then gave Charlie a small supportive smile before heading over to Ron who had just removed all the cutlerly he'd poorly set out before failing to lay out the table cloth.

"Ron…you are aware that's the wrong way round don't you?" Harry wondered as Ron fiddled with the cloth.

Ron looked down and realised his mistake and his ears went pink as he mumbled, "Yeah I do…yeah…"

"And the wrong way up?"

"I was…I was just…I was just testing you," Ron's face began to change to red as Harry began laughing, shaking his head, as he left Ron to sort out the table cloth. He strode past Bill and Charlie, who were now in deep conversation about Quidditch, and into the kitchen. In there were many clouds of steam, all the women cooking. In the corner Fleur was chopping up vegetables with her wand, next to her was Mrs Weasley fussing over a pot with Hermione beside her slicing up a chicken breast with an overlarge knife.

"Hello stranger." Ginny's voice purred into Harry's ear. She was leant against the frame of the kitchen door.

"Thought you were busy."

"I was. Now I'm not. Tea's a while off. Wanna talk?"

"Sure."  
"Upstairs?"

"Wherever."

"Come on then."

"Alright."

As soon as Harry finished speaking, Ginny grabbed his hand and the pair of them tip-toed out of the kitchen and past Mr Weasley who was reading the Muggle section in the latest edition of the Daily Prophet. The two of them then walked upstairs until they reached Ginny and Hermione's bedroom. Harry's stomach dropped. The last time he'd been in there Ginny had kissed him unexpectedly on his birthday and Ron hadn't been too pleased.

"Something up?" Harry's thinking had been noticed by Ginny.

"Nothing."

"Well then. Come in. Don't be shy. I don't bite."

"I hope not."

"Not into vampirism then?"

"I'm into you."

"Such a way with words…" Harry laughed at Ginny's sarcasm as they entered her bedroom and sat down on here bed before the two locked eyes, leaning closer and closer to each other. Harry stretched out his hand and stroked Ginny's hair, running his fingers through it. Ginny put a hand to his back as she parted her lips as Harry's touched hers. Harry had missed those lips. He'd been waiting for such a moment, to be close with Ginny like that, for such a long time. Harry felt like it had been too long for them to be apart. For months it ached to have, for one second, even thought about her, knowing he couldn't see her. Now Harry had her back in his arms and he didn't want to let her go as they kissed. He would have done anything to prolong the moment, to experience the endorphins riddling his body with guilty joy. He knew he shouldn't be happy at such a time but he couldn't help but enjoy the connection he felt with Ginny. For the first time in so many months Harry felt somewhat…complete. However, the feeling didn't last too long as Harry and Ginny's passion was interrupted by the arrival of Hermione who swung the door open to instantly turn away in embarrassment.

"Oh god, sorry!" She apologised quickly.

"Hermione…it's alright." Harry told his friend for her to turn back around, her cheeks blushed.

"I was just-! Erm…tea's ready!" Hermione exited the bedroom again leaving Harry and Ginny to burst into laughter after Hermione's awkwardness.

"I guess there's no such thing as privacy in this place anymore." Ginny giggled as Harry took hold of her soft hands.

"I agree on that one." Harry affirmed with a squeeze of her hands.

"Our relationship, it appears, isn't a secret anymore."

"It wasn't anyway. Hermione sussed it out immediately at breakfast."

Ginny shook her head in disbelief, "She's just too clever!"

"That's Hermione for you!"

"Aha! Now, Mr Potter, shall you accompany me to the garden of the household for a much required third meal of the day?" Ginny jumped off her bed.

"I definitely shall, Miss Weasley!" Harry replied, also jumping from the bed, offering his arm out, "A link?"

"Don't mind if I do!" Ginny linked arms with Harry before the pair of them skipped out of Ginny's room and down the stairs for tea.

A couple of hours later and Harry was full. Full of amazing amounts of food that Mrs Weasley, Hermione and Fleur had produced (with some additional help from Ginny). For tea that night the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione dined on chicken and gammon along with roasted potatoes, chips, Yorkshire puddings and an array of vegetables. To drink was water, Pumpkin Juice, Butterbeer and Firewhisky, which they drank whilst eating their desserts of trifle, ice cream and sponge cake. After the meal had been demolished, everyone was chatting about various things afore topics of conversation ran out. It seemed Harry, Mr Weasley, Ron and his brothers had talked in incredible length about Quidditch and the direction of the Ministry whereas the women had done the same but about household chore techniques something which bored Ginny and Hermione terribly. After a while, the abudance and volume of conversation lessened until the atmosphere around the tables was near enough silent. This was when Mr and Mrs Weasley shared a look and a nod and Mr Weasley coughed to clear his throat before speaking directly to Harry, "Erm…Harry?"

The Weasleys and Hermione who sat around the two tables, who had all focused on the head of the family as he spoke, now looked upon Harry who answered with, "Yeah…?"

"Molly and I, upon behalf of the family, were…were wondering whether you were prepared to divulge into the details of where and why yourself, Ron and Hermione went hiding for the past year."

Harry, at the back of his mind, had been expecting one day for such a question to be raised. Obviously Mr and Mrs Weasley would like to know where there youngest son had been. He'd been off the face of the earth for nearly a year and now they felt it was the appropriate time to wonder why and Harry understood they were at full liberty to do so but a part of him felt the need to keep it a secret. All that time ago in Dumbledore's office he had promised to keep what he knew about Voldemort a secret from everybody apart from his friends. Now that Dumbledore and Voldemort were dead and the war was over did it mean Harry could break his promise? Ron's family had a right to know where he'd been, what he'd done. A part of Harry was dreading the possibility of the family turning against him as they came to realise what danger he'd put Ron into. In addition to this, the Weasley's might be too overwhelmed with the facts of Ron's bravery to even care what Harry had taken him into. Harry's eyes darted across the tables as Mr Weasley's request whirred through his mind. His eyes caught Ginny's. Her face showed a frown. Harry realised it wasn't just Ron's parents who'd like to know where they'd been, Ginny would want to too. She was Hermione's friend, Ron's sister and his lover. Harry now felt obliged to explain all as he lost himself, staring into Ginny's dark brown eyes.

"Harry?" Mr Weasley disrupted Harry's gazing.

Harry's eyes flicked to Mr Weasley who sat beside Molly, her hand in his, "I guess so."

"So you'll tell us…? Everything…?" Mr Weasley enquired.

"Everything."

"Harry!" Ron, who was seated next to Harry, whispered into his ear, "Are you sure about this?"

Harry then muttered back to Ron, "They deserve to know where you were and what you were doing."

"But Dumbledore said-."

"Dumbledore's dead, Ron."

Ron sat back in his chair, "It's not my secret to tell. It's yours, so I can't exactly stop you."

"Exactly," Harry lifted up his head to see every pair of eyes around the tables ogling him with anticipation, their expressions solemn, "Where do want me to start?"

"The very beginning." Mr Weasley stated.

Harry grabbed his bottle of Butter and allowed its contents to engulf his mouth and throat until it was empty. As Harry went to retrieve another bottle and began to remove its top with a bottle opener, he started to tell his story. Harry decided it was best to explain everything. With help from Ron and Hermione, Harry was able to successfully retell everything he knew about the prophecy, Snape, Voldemort and his horcruxes to the Weasley family. It took Harry nearly two hours to inform them of what he had learnt and suffered for the past seven years. As expected, the Weasleys continued to be shocked and disturbed as Harry told them something new. As Harry relayed the information about his horrendous life and the lies that had encircled it he saw flashbacks of events passed. Images of those who had died or places Harry had fought in swept past his vision. Harry at some points struggled to tell the family things as they were too difficult to word as a result of the memories being too strongly upsetting. Harry kept his repeatedly drying throat refreshed with three Butterbeers until he finally finished telling his story.

"Is that everything?" Mr Weasley asked in a hoarse voice, not looking at Harry. The other members of the Weasley family excluding Ron and Ginny were either avoiding eye contact with Harry and looking at the table or emptying the contents of their flasks.

"Yeah…" Harry then took his last sip of Butterbeer before he picked up a bottle of Firewhisky, pushed away from the table on his chair and said quietly and politely, "Excuse me." He then stood up and left the table, walked up the old Burrow stairs and entered Ron's room. When he slipped onto his bed, Harry began unscrewing the cork on the bottle before a knock was heard on the bedroom door.

"Who is it?" he said.

"Me." Came Ginny's soothing voice.

"Come in."

She did, walking over to Harry and sitting next to him on the bed.

"Glad that's all out?" she asked.  
"Yeah…"  
"Good. Then we can move on then can't we?"

"Huh? You're not going to ask any questions or…?"

"I don't need to. I've got all my answers. You are the bravest man I've ever met, Harry Potter."

"No, I'm not," Harry automatically replied.

"Oh, yes you are. Not many people can die and live to tell the tales you have tonight."

"Not many people become the master of the Deathly Hallows I guess."  
"What've you done with the wand and cloak?"

"I fixed my old wand with the Elder Wand before re-burying it with Dumbledore. The cloak I've kept just in case."

Harry flicked the top off of the Firewhisky bottle and drank half of its fiery contents in one go.

"Don't beat yourself up about this anymore," Ginny patted his arm, "We've got to move on and I'll be here to help you, okay?"

Harry nodded.

"I'm gonna get some sleep," she leant towards him and kissed him on the cheek, "Try yourself, won't you? To sleep, I mean."

"I can only try."

Ginny got up from the bed and gave Harry a sympathetic smile, "Goodnight."

"G'night."

Ginny left the bedroom. Harry lay down on his bed, eyes wide open, his body exhausted but refusing to accept defeat. His brain continued to torture itself, plaguing it with terrible thoughts as he heard Ginny's footsteps dissipate into nothingness as she scaled down the stairs.

The time had just passed three in the morning and Harry was still wide awake and staring at the ceiling again where the Chudley Cannons were riding around in their orange robes in the poster. One of the Beaters was hitting a Bludger repeatedly at the back of the Seeker's head, the Bludger was acting like a boomerang returning to the Beater as the Seeker looked around wildly and the rest of the team laughed in hysterics. Then after the Seeker finally had enough of the Bludger hitting him, he blew it up with his wand before swooping over to the Beater and shoving him off his broom, Harry got up. He suddenly jumped up and out of bed, putting on his slippers before silently enduring breathlessness and nausea as he turned on his heels and Disapparated.

Harry was now in Ginny's bedroom, slowly tip-toeing around an assortment of Hermione's spell books including _Standard Book of Spells – Advanced Grade_, until he reached Ginny. Tenderly he poked her arm, half of him expected her to make some sort of noise when she was woken up but all she did was open her eyes and smile. She then nodded to Harry and extended out her hand, which Harry took before Disapparating again, this time right onto the sofa in the Weasley's living room.

"Why couldn't we of walked downstairs?" Ginny giggled.

"'Cause the stairs creak, so I thought it best to Apparate." Harry replied.

"Couldn't sleep then I take it?"

"Well I didn't plan to get up at 3 o'clock for a chat did I?!" Harry chuckled.

"You're not the only one who couldn't anyway."

"Why, what's up?"

"I was just thinking about some of the things you said."

Harry took hold of her hand, "Thought you said we were gonna move on?"

"I can't help but imagine what happened to you Harry…I know, I'm a hypocrite."

"Oh, shut up."

The couple grinned at one another and began to talk for what seemed like a lifetime as they found and drank Butterbeer. After reminiscing times gone by and emptying several bottles of Butterbeer, Harry finally managed to fall asleep with Ginny's head on his lap.

"What you want for breakfast?"

"Why, are you offering to make it?"

"Yeah…?"

"Really?!"

Hermione had woken up even earlier than usual and decided to wake up Ron from his snoring slumber for both a laugh, to see his startled, tired face upon an unexpected waking, and because she hated breakfasting alone. Though grumpy and eager to go back to bed Ron went downstairs with Hermione and was, for the first time ever, offering to prepare her breakfast, something he had never done for anybody never mind Hermione.

"You sound surprised!"

"Well, yes, you never make your own breakfast never mind somebody else's."

"Oh, well, if you're gonna be like that..."

"No, no, sorry, it'd be greatly appreciated Ronald." Hermione punched Ron playfully on the forearm as they entered the living room, instantly noticing Harry and Ginny curled up on the sofa.

"Do they have to do that?" Ron muttered. Ron had had his suspicions about his sister and his best friend, that they restarted their romance secretly, but not secretly enough because everybody in the family noticed and Ron just wished they'd come clean about it because the Weasleys were more than happy for the romance to occur. The idea that Ginny was happy with Harry made them happy and distracted them from their grief but of course the couple were worried that their enjoyment of one another's company would annoy the others at such a delicate time. For that reason they kept their reunion under wraps but, as Ron had rightly predicted, the two were together, as confirmed by their presence on the sofa in such an intimate position. Hermione of course already knew about the two getting back together but had decided to keep it from Ron as she was also worried about how he would react to the news.

"What do you mean? It's cute."

"That's also my sister."

"And your best friend." Hermione raised her eyebrows at Ron.

"Still, I can't help the feeling you know? It's natural. I'm her brother, I'm protective of her, always will be."

"But Ron," Hermione began, "She's grown up. She can look after herself. And Harry's not exactly going to hurt her, is he?"

Ron glanced at the two on the sofa before turning back to Hermione, "He did once, Hermione. And he could do it again."

"He had no choice that time."

"He might be my best friend and everything, Hermione, but he messed her about last year and though she never said it aloud, I could tell it destroyed her."

Hermione gulped, "Don't worry, Ron, she'll be fine. Harry's going to be here for her for good."

"I hope so…I really do…I mean, they're so good for another." Ron emitted a small smile.

"Is this you giving up? Is a boy finally good enough for the sister of Ronald Weasley?"

Ron's earlobes tinged with pink, "He's Harry Bloody Potter isn't he?"

Hermione's laughter after this remark woke up Harry and Ginny.

"What's so funny?" Ginny wondered.

"Oh, nothing." Hermione winked at Ron.

"I'll be in the kitchen." Ron exited the living room and went into kitchen where the sounds of opening cupboards and moving of pans could be heard.

"Is he…making breakfast?" Harry asked Hermione.

"He certainly is." Hermione grinned.

"Somebody's having a positive effect on the miserable git." Ginny said as she sat up on the sofa and shuffled over to one side to allow Hermione to plonk herself inbetween her and Harry.

"I try my best."

"I guess he's realised what's going on between me and Ginny?"

"A blind idiot could spot it a mile off, Harry."

Harry chuckled, "Everybody's noticed?"

"Course they have, it was pointless hiding it."

"And everyone's okay with it?"

"Harry, why wouldn't they?!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Just us being happy together at a time like this-"

"Is exactly what we need, I mean, everybody's fine about me and Ron."

"But we're a bit different…"

"Oh don't start that, Ron's already been on about that already."

"He's got a point, Hermione."  
"Harry, if you won't listen to Hermione listen to me," Ginny said, "I understand what you did had to be done. You ended it with me to keep me safe, now the danger's gone and I know you won't leave me again."  
"Don't worry, I won't." Harry squeezed her hand.

"You better not, otherwise I'll put your-!" Ginny began jokingly before there was a loud crash in the kitchen as Ron swore crudely, he'd dropped a saucepan.

"Erm, Harry?"

"Yes, Hermione."  
"With all the storytelling last night we didn't get round to discussing what we were going to about finding my parents."

Harry slapped himself in the forehead, "Damnit."

"It's fine, Harry, I forgot too."

"What's this?" Ginny interrupted.

"Hermione's decided to track down her parents." Harry spoke on Hermione's behalf.

"They're in Australia, right?"

"Well, that's where I sent them." Hermione slouched a little on the sofa.

"You think they'll still be there?"

"Yes…I mean, when I reconfigured their memories I made it clear that they wanted to move to Australia and that they'd been travelling beforehand so that they'd have no immediate urge to go elsewhere for a while."

"Oh, good. What's your plan? If you have one that is."

"At the moment we're going to get our hands on a map of Australia and then start investigating what my parents have been up to since leaving the country."

"But won't that involve finding out where they went, where they're living?"

"Of course…" Hermione said.

"But the only people you'll have that information will be the Muggle government?" Ginny had raised a valid point, Harry decided to pick upon it immediately.

"She's got a point Hermione," he began propping an arm onto the top of the sofa, "Hacking into the Australian government's both impossible and incredibly dangerous."

"Who said anything about hacking into the Muggle government?" Hermione said, something in her voice implying something.

"But that's the only way to get to the information we need…?" Harry had become clueless.

"Yes or no, have we infiltrated government before?"

Hermione's question was catalytic, it made Harry begin to realise her intentions, "Yeah…the Ministry of Magic."

"Britain isn't the only one to have a Ministry, Harry."

"I know that, Australia's is one of the biggest and most influential in the Wizarding World."

"It also keeps tabs on Muggles whose lives are endangered by the Dark Arts."

"But how would they know your parents would be in danger?" Ginny quiried.

"I told them of course."

"Did you explain about the memory configuration?"

"Yes, they understood considering the climate the Wizarding World was in."

Harry exhaled heavily, "So we're going to break into another Ministry?"

"Are you joking?!" she laughed, "We can't be seen over there, Harry! No matter what disguises we put on we'd be found out. Security at all of the ministries are on red alert ever since our infiltration. And if Harry Potter, currently the Wizarding World's most famous face, is caught red-handing stealing government documents…! Just imagine!"

"So we're not hacking into the Ministry then?" Harry said.

"Not us, no, but someone will."

"I'm lost."

"We need to ask somebody to do for us. Somebody who we can trust. Somebody who won't ask any questions. Somebody we can rely on not to get caught." Hermione looked at both Harry and Ginny with a hopeful expression as if to ask whether they could think of anyone and was not until later that day, after some discussion with Ron, that they came to a conclusion and decided on who they thought was best for the job.


	4. Charlie's Adventure

Later that evening the four had come to a decision, they were going to approach Charlie, Ron's second eldest brother. They had decided against the other Weasleys for particular reasons which would've seen the operative's mission limited by their faults if they had even chosen to undertaken it. Mrs Weasley and Fleur were left out of the equation as well as anybody else outside the Burrow, as the group had become distrusting of anybody else in times gone by. Mr Weasley hadn't been selected because proposing such an idea would see him turn it down immediately, mainly due to his wife's influence, the possible immoral and dangerous aspects to it and the availability of alternative options of finding Hermione's parents. Bill, like his father, would see his wife hold him back and George was far too inexperienced, immature and a reliability for such a delicate operation. Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione had decided to see the agreement they were about to make with Charlie secret. If the plan failed and more people than they knew what Charlie was up they risked endangering the rest of the family and that was something they definitely wanted to avoid at all costs. Also, if they failed to find the Grangers it would see an overall drop in family morale, something which was only just beginning to pick up. So, as Mrs Weasley and Fleur made the final preparations for dinner and Bill, George and Mr Weasley set up the dining tables and chairs, the group of four picked their moment to pull Charlie aside. As they exited the kitchen into the garden they spotted him lay back on a spare chair just metres away from the table with his eyes shut. Harry took the lead and ambled towards Charlie before prodding him in the elbow.

"God Harry! You made me jump!" Charlie bolted upright in the chair before raising an eyebrow at the presence of Harry and the others.

"Can we have a word?" Harry requested.

"Yeah, sure," A confused Charlie then followed the gang near the edge of the garden before asking, "There are reason why I've got the Fabulous Four on my case?"

"Charlie, we need to ask you for something…a favour…" Hermione spoke slowly.

"Go on."

"Well, the other day we decided to start to track down my parents."  
"Your parents?"

"Yes."

"Right." Charlie scratched the back of his head, remembering what he been told the previous night about what lengths his brother's girlfriend had gone to protect her family.

"She wants to track them back down and reconfigure their memories." Harry explained.

"Okay…so what do you need my help with?"

"Because we have no idea where in Australia they are."

"We need information on where they might be. We need someone to infiltrate the Ministry and gather everything we need to find them. We decided we need your help." Ginny explained.

"How do you know the Ministry has information on your parents? Since when did they collect stuff on Muggles?"

"I tipped them off that my parents needed protection." Hermione added.

"Then why can't you just ask the Ministry for the details?" Charlie wondered, perplexed.

"The tip off was anonymous. I explained about the memory wipe but didn't give my name. Thanks to Harry my head had a price on it," Harry gave her a oh-thanks-that-wasn't-my fault look to which she responded, "Sorry, Harry. Anyway, if the Ministry let slip I'd been in contact, the Death Eaters would find out why, track down my parents and either take them hostage, torture or kill them."

"But that's no longer a problem, just get into contact and explain." Charlie stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's not that simple. Security's solid," Ron sighed, "All of the Ministries are on high alert and busy dealing with the aftermath of the war. They won't give priority to a pair of Muggles right now and because Hermione required her parents to be tabbed anonymously they might not believe she is who she says she is and they don't have the time to check whether she can prove it."

"So, instead of waiting for everything to settle, then going through the normal, safe and legal methods you'd rather break into the bloody Ministry?"

"Not the first time we've infiltrated one." Harry chuckled.

"But guys-." Charlie began.

Hermione interrupted him, "Charlie, I can't wait any longer. I need to find them."

"And you will but infiltration may not be the solution."

"Security at the Australian Ministry might be high but it'll still be rebuilding. Pro-Voldemort supporters might still be hanging around. The documentation on my parents may come into the wrong hands. Though the war may be over, the world's still a dangerous place and I don't want to leave my parents vulnerable and potential victims at the hands of the Dark Arts," a tear began to form in Hermione's right eye, "I know it sounds mad, Charlie, but I need to find them. I miss them and I'm scared they're going to get hurt."

Charlie wiped away Hermione's fresh stream of tears with the pad of his thumb, "Of course I'll do it."  
"Thanks so much Charlie," Hermione then rushed forward and hugged him tightly. As she released him he pondered; "Erm…why me though?"  
"We thought you were best for the job." Ginny complimented her brother.

"When'd you want me to start?" he asked.

"As soon as possible, if that's alright with you?" as Ron said this Charlie's face became bemused.

"And what exactly am I going to say to everyone when they realise I've disappeared to Australia, hey?"

"We know that it's not gonna be easy explaining your sudden trip down under but it needs to be done as quickly as possible. Just say you're going to stay with a friend?" Harry suggested.

"Do you think that'll work? And after all that's happened do you seriously think mum will let me go?"

"Surely she'll accept that you need some time elsewhere?" Ginny muttered as she saw Mrs Weasley bringing out two trays from the kitchen, laying them upon the table cloth.

"Fine but all I can do is try."

"No Charlie. You won't try, you'll do it." Ron stared straight into his brother's eyes.

"Hermione," Charlie turned to Hermione, deflecting his younger sibling's glare, "I promise you, I will do whatever I can do help you find your parents, but please, don't put too much faith into me. Me being successful isn't a guarantee…do you understand?"

"Thanks, Charlie." Hermione pecked him on the cheek.

"No problem." Charlie laughed.

"So you'll definitely do it then?" Ginny asked him.

"Yeah. I'll tell everyone at dinner I'm going to visit an old mate from Romania and I don't know how long I'll be. You do know how risky this is going to be?"

"Well, here's an idea. Be careful. And if you're caught, explain what's going on." Hermione chipped in.

"And what if they don't believe me?"

"We'll figure out how to handle that if it comes to it, which it won't…hopefully." Ron said.

Charlie looked like he wasn't reassured.

"So when you gonna set off?" Ginny asked to divert Charlie's worry.  
"Probably tomorrow."

At that moment Mrs Weasley came over to them.

"Just thought I'd say that dinner's out."

Shee waddled off as the others nodded in silent agreement before attending the dinner awaiting them at the laden wooden table in the back garden. Post dessert, Charlie announced his imminent departure that was understood by the family. By the next morning the Harry, Ron, Hermione , Ginny and Charlie had agreed on a plan as Charlie packed a rucksack ready for the off. Just before noon Charlie had been able to Disapparate down to the south coast where a friend of his had agreed to lend Charlie a long distance Portkey, which would transport him straight to Canberra, the capital city of Australia where the Ministry of Magic was based.

By the next week Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron had gathered an assortment of maps of Australia, many detailed war-time Ministry of Magic documents of Muggle-born relatives in foreign countries and various lists of cities and post-codes where Hermione's parents might be. Thanks to Charlie's investigative work in the Ministry, the four of them had some sort of idea of where Mr and Mrs Granger were in Australia. Charlie had successfully managed to infiltrate the Australian Ministry of Magic's records using a number of disguises, false identification, lock picking and Confundus charms, all without suspicion. According to his letters he had accessed the correct set of files within the first couple of days and began distributing some of what he found to them via owl post. However, they had not heard off of him for three days now and so the group had not been able to make any progress in finding Mr and Mrs Granger. Now, Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione were gathered in Ron's room with a large map of Canberra in front of them. They were sat down in silence, focusing on their own individual tasks. Ron was twiddling a quill between his fingers as looked at a list of recently purchased apartments and houses in Canberra. Ginny was tapping her knees with her fingers as she read a furniture company's list of recent delivery destinations. Harry was twirling around his wand and searched through a directory for dentists. Hermione was hastily rifling through many printouts of CCTV footage from one of the busiest days at Canberra's most popular shopping centre. Then, all of a sudden through Ron's open window a crumpled looking tawny owl swooped in and flopped pathetically to the floor. The four of them jumped back in shock before Harry catered immediately for the seemingly unconscious owl.

"Where the heck did that come from?" Rom exclaimed.

"Where do you think? The window of course." Harry said now removing the parchment envelope from the bird's beak with ease.

"Harry, instead of taking the letter why didn't you check the owl was okay first?" Hermione growled.

"Don't worry. It's alright. Must of hit its head on the way in."

"Who's the letter addressed to?"

Harry turned the envelope over. It read; 'To Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Harry.'

"All of us."

"Open it then."

Harry then used his fingernail to slit open the envelope allowing a letter to fall out onto his lap. He unfurled the roll of parchment.

"It's from Charlie."

"Read it!" Hermione more or less squealed as she leaned on Harry's back to read along in synch with him as he did so out loud, just managing to decipher Charlie's rushed, slanted handwriting.

_Dear gang, _

_ The last few days I've been able to pick up some very valuable information on Hermione's parents' whereabouts. Enclosed is a recent photo of them. The Australian Ministry snapped them when You Know Who was in charge and forced them to find Muggle borns or known relatives of them. The image was in the files about it all. It was taken in February on a beach near Canberra. They were followed to their holiday home quite nearby. Tabs were kept on them but in April, the spying was stopped for an unclassified reason. All I know is that they might of moved elsewhere in the city. The last few days I've been trying to delve further into the Muggle records as preparation for a manual search. Though we're not going to find them immediately, we're at least one step closer._

_Love, Charlie._

Hermione grabbed the envelope immediately and shook it upside down until a coloured, moving image of Hermione's parents dropped out as the other three discussed Charlie's letter.

"He seems to know what he's doing." Harry said.

"Like he said, we're one step closer. I don't think it's going to be too long till we find them you know." Ron murmured optimistically as Ginny nodded fervently.

"I agree. We know Charlie well and we know he'll do whatever it takes to find your parents Hermione…Hermione?" Ginny looked to her but she was staring absent-mindedly and lovingly at the photograph of her mum and dad. Tears were leaking one after other down Hermione's cheeks.

"Can I have a look Hermione?" Harry asked with a note of sympathy in his relatively calm voice.

"Y-yeah. S-sure." She cried. With trembling hands she passed the moving picture to Harry.

n the photograph were Hermione's parents, hand in hand smiling and walking down the coastline of a beautiful, pebbly beach. Behind them was the dark blue see which slowly rippled, sending little splashes everywhere. Occasionally, the couple turned to each other in order to exchange a quick kiss or a hug or some sort of joint laughter. They looked incredibly happy together, dressed in shorts and T-shirts avoiding passing beach balls. Harry felt so sorry for them. For Hermione. Hermione hadn't seen them for such a long time and had become overcome with emotion at the sight of her parents, happy together yet blissfully unaware they had a daughter who loved them on the other side of the world.

All of a sudden a charcoal coloured owl swooped through the open window and landed elegantly beside the newly recovered tawny owl. The new owl stared beadily at the other which flew off, feeling intimidated by the presence of a more a bird with more grace than itself. This now beautiful but strangely arrogant owl dropped the roll of parchment that was enclosed within its golden beak before flying back out of the window, leaving a trail of greyish feathers in its wake.

"That was an odd owl." Ron commented as he retrieved the roll of parchment. On the back of it was an ornate, blood red wax stamp which Ron ignored as he unfurled the letter. It was headed; _'THE AUSTRALIAN MINISTRY OF MAGIC'. _Just below this was the Ministry's emblem, a Australian flag emblazoned with a black silhouette of a kangaroo holding what looked like two wands. Underlined and in bold beneath the authentic logo and addresses Harry could read; 'URGENT: CONCERNING THE ARREST AND TRIAL OF MR. CHARLIE WEASLEY'.

Ron gulped, a lump stuck in his throat. Reluctantly he showed the others the letter, their faces became solemn and confused as they realised what they guilt tripped Charlie into doing for them had landed himself in trouble with the Australian authorities. They could have easily waited for order to be reasserted in the Australian Ministry and gone through the normal procedures to discover Mr and Mrs Granger's whereabouts but they hadn't. Instead, they had encouraged their brother, their friend, to break the law and hack into the archives of one of the Wizarding World's most powerful Ministries. Charlie would now surely face severe and immediate punishments for his crimes considering the current state of the Wizarding World, and was the faults of Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione's eagerness to blame.

"Read it." Ginny instructed Ron who obliged after running his hand over his face.

'_To the Weasley family,_

_ We are writing to inform you of the recent warranted arrest of Charles Weasley who has been incarcerated in the Australian Ministry of Magic's temporary prison. Mr Weasley was arrested by Ministry Auror officials on the 10th May when he was caught breaking and entering a Ministry archive room through use of disguise and Confundus charming. Mr Weasley was seen accessing, reading and stealing confidential Ministry material. Mr Weasley during interrogation has confessed to all crimes he has exercised whilst in the country and will be sentenced accordingly to these crimes and those he is suspected of or needs to be questioned about._

_OFFENDER; Charles Weasley._

_CRIME(S);_

_Confessed to;_

_Use of false identification, deceptive magic and disguises to enter/access Ministry offices._

_Access, theft and distribution of government documentation._

_Misuse of war-time materials._

_Suspected of;_

_Collaboration with pro-Voldemort supporters._

_Practising of Dark Magic._

_Disturbance of peace._

_To be questioned about;_

_The whereabouts and mortality of Mr and Mrs Granger._

_His employer of services._

_TRIAL;_

_DATE – 15th May 1998._

_TIME – 10.00 (Australian Time)_

_COURTROOM - 7._

_POSSIBLE SENTENCE - 25 years in Azkaban Reformed Prison._

_FAMILY MEMBERS REQUESTED TO ATTEND COURT;_

_Arthur Weasley._

_Molly Weasley (née Prewett)._

_George Weasley._

_William Weasley._

_Fleur Weasley (née Delacour)._

_Ginevra Weasley._

_Ronald Billius Weasley._

_Harry James Potter._

_Hermione Jean Granger._

_ALIASES/SUSPECTS/WITNESSES FOR THE DEFENCE REQUIRED FOR QUESTIONING:_

_Ginevra Weasley._

_Ronald Billius Weasley._

_Harry James Potter._

_Hermione Jean Granger._

One of our senior Aurors and a member of the Portkey Office of the Department of Magical Transportation will meet you all at Cranworth Pier, Cornwall for transportation to Canberra via long-distance portkey at 9.45 pm GMT on May 15th. Please do bring any essentials such as clothing, toiletries, food or drink just in case you would like to stay in any of the local accomdation on offer. If not, the two Ministry officials will escort you back to the ferry port to allow you to return home. If the aliases do not arrive they will be taken in for questioning.

_Yours truly,_

_Bruce Sappington, Head Prosecutor of the Australian Ministry of Magic.'_

Ron dropped the letter to the floor, put his hand into his heads and groaned as Ginny held a hand to her mouth, Harry wrung his hands, his palms sweaty as Hermione mumbled, "'The whereabouts and _mortality_ of Mr and Mrs Granger?'" she quoted from the letter, emphasising the noun _mortality, _"The Ministry don't even know if my parents are alive never mind where they are!" she burst into tears. Ron crawled across the floor and sat beside her, letting her drop her head onto his shoulder, soaking his shirt with tears as he slung an arm over her back and gave her a squeeze.

"They're alive…I know it…trust me…" he whispered.

"And what if they're not Ron?! What if they're not?! What do I do then?! If they die…I…I d-d-don't know…oh, Ron, what if they're dead! What if the Death Eaters found them and killed them?! And…and it'd be my f-fault…all mine…I t-t-took away their m-memories and s-s-sent them away…I would've k-killed them!" Hermione couldn't produce any further coherent words after that but instead sobbed into Ron's shirt, he comforted her the best he could as he spoke to Harry and Ginny who both visibly distressed by Hermione's current state of upset.

"What we have we done…?" Harry breathed.

"We've made a mistake but I'm sure if we explain everything they'll understand why what Charlie did had to be done." Ron said.

"We had the option to wait and to follow the normal, legal procedures but decided to take the law into our own hands and infiltrated confidential archives, I'm sure the Australian Ministry of Magic will let us off without a second glance." Ginny's sarcasm had an air of defeat in its tone.

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Oh, I dunno, Charlie didn't break into their top secret archives or anything?!"

"But if he explained, why hasn't he been let go?"  
"What do you mean if he's explained?"

"If he's told him why he did it, they should've let him go."

"Why should they?"

"He had no option but to break the law to find somebody's parents whose minds have been wiped, are prime targets for pro-Voldemort supporters and might already be dead!" Hermione sobbed a little harder in Ron's chest as he said that. He kissed her on the forehead and whispered his apologies.

"But we've just come out of a war, security's on high alert for any Dark Art activity and if they've got somebody breaking into their archives and sending out information about a couple who've lost their memory and are in possible danger they might just get the wrong idea and won't listen to what he has to say. With everything that's going on it's no surprise he's been sent to trial so quickly, he's probably a low priority case when it comes to the grand scale of things." Ginny explained.

"But we've got Harry." Ron's words made Harry's eyes flick towards him.

"What about me?"

"You just saved the entire Wizarding World!" Ron exclaimed.

"Right…?"

"Exactly. With you as witness why are they even bothering to take this to trial! The jury aren't gonna hear a word of it! They're going to believe whatever you tell them!"

"Not necessarily," Hermione wiped the tears from her eyes as she lifted her head off of Ron's chest, "Harry isn't the one being trialled, Charlie is, and though Harry might be his witness, the Ministry aren't going to take a crime like this lightly." She sniffed, her voice waivering a little.

"I understand that infiltrating the bloody Ministry is a crime, but he was doing it with good cause wasn't he? He was trying to find two missing people whose lives might be in danger!"

"Ron, don't you see," Hermione began, "It doesn't matter what reasons he did it for, he still broke the law and that's a fact he can't get away from. We could've easily waited to follow the normal procedures but because we forced him to do otherwise we've landed him in deep trouble."

"So the Ministry are just going to disregard who his witnesses are? Whose parents are involved? His motives? Who _he_ is?" Ron articulated in disgust.

"They can't treat him differently to any other criminal otherwise they'd be digging themselves a hole," Hermione finished wiping her eyes, "If the Ministry is seen letting go somebody who's broken several laws just because of who they're friends with or the reasons why they did what they did the country would be in outrage. This is the Australian Ministry making an example, showing the other defendants that it doesn't matter what you do or who you are that all criminals are treated equally because no crime is excusable even if you're friends with Harry Potter."

"Do you think he'll be able to win…? The case I mean." Harry wondered.

"I think it's more than likely, though the Ministry aren't going to be soft on him because of his motives and connections but having you there, Harry, is going to have a massive influence." Hermione said, finally fully recovered from the realisation that her parents may be out there somewhere, possibly dead.

"I just don't believe this is happening…" Ginny twirled strands of her hair between her thin fingers, "I mean…this is our fault, isn't it?"

"Do you think because we 'employed' him that we could be pulled into this?" Ron sat up to adjust his socks, a worried expression plastered on his freckled face.

"It's possible," Hermione gulped, "But Charlie did the crime so he'll do the time."

"But he confessed and if we tell the truth too it'll help surely?" Harry knew a little about trials and was certain the offender was given some benefit of the doubt for admitting their crimes.

"That'll definitely help him…"

"This is insane…I mean, Charlie, arrested and in court…in Australia…?" Ron leaned against his bedroom wall and put a hand to his head.

"It was a risk we had to take and it failed, now we have to focus on getting him out." Ginny said.

"First thing's first we've got to tell the others." Harry stated.

"Who's offering to be skinned alive by mum?" Ron gave a faint chuckle.

After a few moments Ginny half raised her arm and uttered, "I'll do it."

"Good luck." Ron muttered as Ginny jumped up reluctantly from the floor and exited the bedroom to go down the spiral staircase and into the living room where the rest of the Weasleys sat talking and drinking next to the fire. Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in silence and tried their best to hear what was going on in the living room. Though it was muffled they could recognise Ginny's voice through the floorboards and shortly after that of the others coversing, probably trying to understand the situation Ginny had handed them. They were probably asking themselves why such a thing was happening to them, questioning Ginny about why she and the others couldn't have waited and risked having Charlie arrested. Not much time passed after Ginny had presumably explained what had happened to her family when the other three were asked to come down to corroborate what was being said which saw Ron show his mother and father the letter they had received from the Ministry. Voices were raised, arguments ensued, questions were asked and then finally, after the others had become settled with the news, arrangements began to be discussed for the journey to Cornwall the next day. By the time they had finished making plans, ignoring the context of the event that lay ahead, it had gone one in the morning and they all decided to go to bed.

The next morning, a generally tired Weasley family, most of the members of which had not slept properly, breakfasted before packing rucksacks of essentials in case they decided to stay near to the Ministry, something which depended on the result of the trial that day. This packing took until midday when they had lunch and spent the rest of the day discussing what Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione were all going to say when they stood as suspects and witnesses. After configuring multiple scenarios and coming up with as many possible questions as they could think of the four were pretty confident in what they were going to say to help Charlie. Hermione however did not practice as much as the others did during that day as she spent most of it with Bill and Mr Weasley trying to figure out and conjure a variation of Priori Incantato. The enchantment was used usually to show what spell a wand conjured previously. Hermione wanted to use the enchantment in order to show she used the memory charm on her parents the year before however the problem was she had produced hundreds of spells since that day. The variation she tried to master with help from Ron's brother and father would see her mentally select a particular spell she had used on a certain day and see it appear in front of the court later that day. For any other wizard or witch, whether it be of Hermione's age or not, had struggled to manipulate the charm in such a way and therefore the variation had rarely been seen. Despite this, Hermione Granger was no regular witch. With genius intellect and the ability to produce the most complex spells imaginable not found in dusty old text books, Hermione had an advantage when it came to practising the spell. By the evening she had successfully managed to produce what she wanted. So, before the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione sat down to eat dinner Hermione stood confidently at the head of the table;

"Recupero Prior Incanto!" the tip of Hermione's wand then ejected a thin stream of silvery smoke which expanded and began to form a wispy image. Eventually a smoke version of Hermione's hand, holding her wand, formed, the tip of the wand directed at the back of two heads. An echo of Hermione's voice whispered in a trembling tone, "Obliviate…" The recreation of Hermione wiping her parents' memories began to fade as a second, thinner jet of smoke ejected itself from the tip of the smoke wand and towards Mr and Mrs Granger's heads. When the rest of the hazy image disappeared, Hermione allowed herself to curl up the edges of her lips into a small smile to the applause of the family sat around the table. Hermione stowed away her wand and sat between Ron and Fleur by way of notifying Mrs Weasley it was now okay to bring out the large dishes of food they were to consume before setting off for Cornwall that night. There wasn't much conversation as they eat and drank, instead the pre-summer night was shrouded in the buzzes and tapping of little feet that was the soundtrack to the Burrow's garden life. At half past nine, with the cutlery, plates, bowls and goblets washed and put away and the excess food disposed of (mostly down Ron's gullet), the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were ready to depart to meet the two Australian Ministry employees.

"Dad, I still don't see why we can't just Apparate there. It'd be much quicker and less effort." Ron complained.

"Because Ron," Mr Weasley answered, "We don't want to risk anybody getting Splinched thank you very much."

"We've all Apparated before and been fine!"  
"Really?" Mr Weasley raised his eyebrows as he elongated his question.

"Well, yeah."

"I don't think some of us are mature and experienced enough to Apparate such a distance."

"Ginny's only-"

"Who said I was talking about Ginny?" Mr Weasley quipped. He then winked and strode off back to kitchen leaving Ron to walk over to Harry and Hermione who were adjusting their backpacks.

"Did somebody tell my dad about what happened when we Disapparated from the Ministry last year?" he exclaimed.

"Maybe…" Hermione said.

"He doesn't trust me to do it, that's why we're going by brooms."

"He has a point though, you never know when you're gonna get Splinched but you get it all the time!" Ron shoved Harry by his shoulder a couple of steps back as his friend guffawed.

"Hilarious." Ron noted in a lamely sarcastic voice.

"I'm looking forward to going by broom actually," Harry grinned as he tightened one of the straps on his bag, "Not rode properly for a while."

"Guess it beats being stuck in a car with old moody bollocks." Ron notioned towards George who was slumped against the side of the house staring at his feet, a blank expression on his pale, freckled face.

"I don't think he's coming." Hermione added.

"Why not?"

"Not sure but your mum and dad are letting him stay."

"I'm sure Charlie will appreciate the support."

"Everyone, it's time to get going!" Mr Weasley announced, stepping out of the kitchen with Mrs Weasley. The arrangements for travel they were about to use saw Mr and Mrs Weasley take a car with Bill and Fleur whereas Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione would fly by broomsticks. The reasons for this being that the four in the car were not exactly able flyers and Mr Weasley had been eager to try out the motor vehicle he'd been working on for several months now. As Voldemort and the Death Eaters had control over the country and the Weasleys found themselves unemployed and hiding at the Burrow, Mr Weasley had found an abandoned car. In a desperate attempt to keep himself sane he enchanted it like he had done so with a Ford Anglia six years previously. The car, a dark green Ford Escort, which was apparently the replacement of the Ford Anglia in the 1960s, had been renovated by Mr Weasley to fly, become invisible and several other functions which he had kept to himself. Regardless of this Mrs Weasley was adamant that her husband could not show off any of the car's magical attributes in worry that they would be noticed by Muggles, something Harry and Ron had done whilst in their second year at Hogwarts. The two, thanks to a house-elf Dobby, couldn't pass through the barrier between platforms nine and ten at King's Cross Station and decided to fly Mr Weasley's enchanted blue Ford Anglia to the school, being seen by multiple Muggles and landing them in trouble upon arrival.

By 8.50 Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione had their backpacks on, with their brooms to hand. Hermione was not exactly fond of flying but she had begun to grasp some basic skills in the days after the war, plus, there was no room left for her in the car. The boot of the car was so small that a couple of bags had to be placed on the only available seat left leaving Hermione with no choice but to tackle her fear of inadequacy on a broom. Soon enough they all left George to his own devices to begin the hour long journey via air and land. The weather was calm which the four on brooms took to their advantage, landing near to the pier without being too blustered by the light winds, yet breathing heavily out of exhaustion. Not long after they demounted their brooms the Ford Escort parked up and the rest of the family got out and unpacked the boot. After everyone had their bags on their backs Mr Weasley directed the way towards the pier. To get to it they passed through a small car park where a slanted, wooden white sign read; _Cranworth Pier. _Just ahead they could see a sloping gravel barrier that led into a lake. In the middle, extended a quarter of the way into the lake, was the pier. It had no support on it, it was just a stretch of thick wooden planks. As they reached the pier they could see two dim lights at the end of the pier which belonged to the two Ministry wizards. It was only until they were just few away that Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys could see the faces of the men which were illuminated by their wands. The tallest, who was rather stocky and muscular in build, had a rough grey stubble around a scarred face. His forehead was draped in a mop of greasy, grey streaked brown hair that rested on his shoulders. The wizard was tapping the back of his left hand with his rather short, dark wand which saw its light flick up and down. His colleague was much smaller in comparison and hunched over stroking his handlebar moustache. Every so often he lightly adjusted his thinning ginger comb over, a reddish saucepan in his other hand. The Portkey. When the group got to the end of the pier to greet the wizards, the two sombre Ministry employees waved their wands so that the light in their wands rose into the air and grew into two large spheres of yellow light which lit up half of the pier.

"The Weasleys?" said the burlier wizard in a gruff, monotonous tone.

"Yes, yes we are," Mr Weasley ambled forward, "I'm Arthur Weasley. And who are you may I ask?"

"You're late."

"Are we?" Mr Weasley checked his watch, "Oops, sorry," Harry checked his own watch as Mr Weasley, seeing they were just five minutes late, "Traffic was horrendous. Anyway, nice to meet you…?"

"Damaldus Cave, Senior Auror," Mr Weasley initiated a hand shake which saw Cave's meaty hand crush Mr Weasley's much smaller one, "And this is my colleague, Portman Radling."

The weedier wizard nodded shakily at the family, removing his hat in a half courtesy, "From the Portkey office, here to help you get to Canberra." Radling squawked in a rather high but strong Australian accent.

"Now, are you all ready to head off?" Cave grumbled.

The family affirmed with nods and yeses.

"Now, have you all travelled by Portkey before?" Radling asked.

Again, they all said yes.

"Ever been to the other side of the world with one?"

They all shook their heads.  
"Well, to be honest it isn't that different just a tad more painful but as long as you listen to my instructions you'll be fine. When I tell you to let go, let go because if you get off too early or too late, you could end up anywhere. Got it?"

All heads nodded.

"Good, now we must get a move on. The court room opens in ten minutes." Cave uttered.

Radling placed the saucepan onto the pier floor.

"Please place your fingers on the saucepan."

As the group bent down to touch the saucepan it began to glow blue. Once everybody had a firm hold on it Radling said, "Any second now."

Then it happened. Harry felt like he had a hook around his navel which jerked him up. He felt himself beginning to spin around madly, freefalling, head rolling around on its shoulders, hair covering his line of vision as he saw blurred images sweep. As he span around in the cold, blustering air his speed of falling increased. Somewhere in the distance Harry heard a faint cry, "LET GO!" Harry loosened his finger which had previously felt like it was super glued to the saucepan. Abruptly the wind stopped and he dropped like a stone. In a split second he crashed onto his stomach. Luckily his fall was softened by sand. Harry's skinny body thrashed into the ground spraying the dry, hot sand everywhere, his glasses going askew. When he opened his eyes he was met with blinding sunlight which took him a moment or two to adjust to. Once he did, he shook his sandy fringe out of his eyes and pushed his glasses back onto his nose. He pushed up from the sand, his hands sinking into it, feeling winded by the fall. When he finally got up and looked around him he took a look at the beach they had landed on. Around him the Weasleys and Hermione were either already stood or struggling to get to their feet with moans and groans. Radling and Cave stood tall, wands aloft waiting impatiently for the family to finally be ready to move off of the beach they had found themselves on. Harry took a quick look around at the long, sandy beach and read a distant sign saying _'Balmoral Beach'_ . Far out in the distance was a shining blue sea which when rippled reflected the blazing summer sun. Harry then realised the change in temperature. It was only eight in the morning in Australia but the heat made Harry sweat underneath the t-shirt and jacket he'd put on back in Britain.

"Are you all alright there?" mumbled Radling.

"Yes."

"Good, now we must make a move. The trial starts in 2 hours. Come on." Cave explained, as the others followed his lead, that the Ministry was hidden underground. They would be heading underneath the city of Sydney through the rocks on the beach and begin a two hour long trek through the tunnels to get to the Ministry which happened to be situated underneath the Sydney Opera House. Following a few minutes of trudging through the sand, they reached a corner of the beach which had masses of brown rock piled up on each other. Cave and Radling gestured towards one of the bigger boulders which they had to all clamber upon other, smaller, flatter rocks to get to. When they did Cave took out his wand and tapped it sharply on the boulder. The Ministry's emblem of the kangaroo burned into the rock before the surface of the rock became smooth again. Then, a slit grew in the middle of the boulder and opened it up, wide enough for two people at a time to get through. Harry looked over Ron's shoulder to see the entrance to what looked like a cave. There were steps that declined onto the thin, rubbly path of the four walled tunnel. Hanging on the walls all the way down into the dark tunnel were candles whose light flickered giving only a dim insight into what lay ahead.

"How do the Muggles not see this when you open it?" Ginny wondered.

As Cave entered the tunnel Radling replied, "The area around this boulder is enchanted so that any Muggle who looks upon it whilst somebody enters here all they see is the boulder."

"But what if they see somebody going near it and then they disappear?"

"Then they'll think it's a trick of the light. It's not exactly too difficult to confuse a Muggle." Radling chuckled. Cave issued a throaty cough signalling for them to proceed.

"Shall we?" Radling suggested stepping into the tunnel. As the last person (Hermione) entered the grimly lit tunnel the opening in the boulder closed up. Cave began to march forward, the others followed in his wake. For the next two hours they walked through the continuous, never changing labyrinth of tunnels with conversation being at a minimum. The likes of Mr and Mrs Weasley, Bill and Fleur had tried to engage both the Ministry wizards into conversation about where they worked, what they did and any details about the trial. Radling was co-operative and talked at length whereas Cave eventually ceased answering questions and managed to gain at least ten feet on everybody else in terms of walking. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny kept their conversation minimal, all thinking carefully of what they were to say when they got to court. Eventually they reached the end of the tunnels and found themselves gathered around an oak door with a brass handle. Cave turned it and led the way into the Ministry.

Harry had to protect his eyes momentarily. Again he was adjusting his eyes to the lights that hung high near the painted ceiling. _This must be the Atrium, _he thought. The Australian Ministry's Atrium was considerably smaller than the British one but there seemed to be some rather noticeable differences. This included the greater height of the room and the statue that stood in the middle. Whereas the British Ministry of Magic's usual statue consisted of a Wizard, Witch, house-elf and Centaur (until recently when Voldemort had the morbid _'Magic is Might' _display replaced the damaged statues), this one had what looked like a kangaroo. It was difficult to determine at first what it was due to its head being discarded on the ground. The kangaroo, like the Ministry's emblem, held a wand. Chunks of gold from the statues could be found all around the Atrium which had evidently been subject to fighting, the damage being cleared up by at least three dozen volunteers. Windows were smashed, posters were torn, the marble floor cracked. Harry could see bloodstains here and there. He then realised the group had continued walking without him. He jogged, curtly avoiding collision with any of the passing employees. He realised where they were going. On the other side of the Atrium stood lifts with golden grille doors like the ones found in the British Ministry. Harry looked around the Atrium realising how similar yet distinct it was from the one he knew. There weren't as many fireplaces for Floo Powder but instead an abudance of office doors. Harry noticed that down a thin corridor which resided in a secluded corner of the Atrium stood a tall, neatly painted but scratched door with a bronze plaque; '_Minister for Magic; Lachlan H.A. Grabbleforn_.' Harry had slowed down at this point to stare at the plaque, which was hanging on just one nail as the others went ahead of him and clambered into the readily open lift. Ginny was about to pass him too when she stopped and touched his arm gingerly.

"Come on Harry." She whispered, nudging him to follow her into the lift which they squeezed into beside Bill and Hermione. As the doors closed in the lift, Harry saw aposter with _'Undesireable Number One'_ as the headline and a moving image of his own face in the centre. Noticing his sudden anguish at the sight of the poster, Hermione tried tugging on it to remove it but it wouldn't.

"It's stuck." She said.

"We've tried everything. It's been put on with a Permanent Sticking Charm." Huffed Cave.

"Can't you burn it?" Harry asked.

"No. It's had all the spells unthinkable put on it so no 'Harry Potter fans' took it off or ruined it."

"So they stay on the walls."

"I guess so."

Harry tightened his knuckles unaware that the words _'I shall not tell lies' _could be still be read faintly. The lift shuddered and plummeted at such a speed that jolted Harry's stomach. Only a few seconds passed until they hit the ground with a loud echoing thud. A cool, Australian female's voice announced, "_Floor Ten. Wizengamot Courtrooms."_

The group then piled out into a dark corridor with black tiled walls with doors running down the side, silver numbers above the door knobs. From where they stood Harry could see Courtroom 7 just a few metres away.

"Thought we had to pass through security?"

"Never mind about security now, we'll sort that later. You are too busy with the trial right now," he moaned, "Radling you're free to go."

"Of course." Radling returned to the lift leaving Cave alone with the family who approached Courtroom 7.

Afore Cave could open the black courtroom door it was abruptly swung outwards to reveal a strange sight. Being held between two Ministry officials was a mop haired, raggedly dressed deranged looking wizard with pale eyes and a scarred face. He had was screaming for a few seconds as he was dragged out of the court by the scruff of the neck before his wild eyes met Harry's. He stopped screaming instantly and stared at Harry, who stared back. Then all of a sudden the wizard flipped out, he threw back his now balled fists into the officials' faces that fell to the ground with a thud both unconscious. The deranged wizard grabbed the nearest official's wand ranting as the family backed away quickly guarded by Cave who ducked with the rest of them as the wizard shot his first spell over their heads.

"DIE HARRY POTTER! MURDERER OF THE DARK LORD!" he screamed, "REDUCTO!"

The group split across the corridor as part of the wall behind them had many pieces shattered and a large hole pouring out dust. A number of wizards and witches rushed frantically to the courtroom exit behind the wizard who turned madly on his heel at the door. "PROTEGO!" One of the first wizards to reach the doorframe slammed their head and fell over. Many tried to blast down the invisible barricade as the crazed wizard carried on his rampage.

"EXCELSIOSEMPRA!" Fleur was unexpectedly thrown off of her feet and is slammed against the wall as the wizard shoved Mrs Weasley aside trying to get to Harry. The latter along with Ginny, Ron and Hermione were hiding within an alcove.

"STUPEFY!" Harry bellowed.

"BOMBARDA!" Hermione screeched.

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Ron shouted.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Ginny bawled.

This quadruple spell combined into one colourful stream of light that flew directly at the maniacal wizard whose eyes widened at the sight, "ARGH!" Harry and Hermione's spell combined blew the wizard flying backwards into the wall, part of which was ripped off by the spells' force. The wizard's wand, because of Ron, flew up into the air and when it crashed down snapped in two as the wizard's limbs snapped together, himself unconscious. The four of them came out of their cover as Mr Weasley rose from attending to his wife to carefully entwine a piece of rope round the hands of the wizard, tightly bound by magic. As he did this, Bill removed the shield charm around the door with one spell and two burly guards burst through and thrust the criminal between them as the previous two were being treated by a Ministry official.

Eventually, the guards slowly took the crazed criminal wizard away and the court filed back into the room talking rapidly about what had just happened. Harry saw Charlie amongst the crowd returning to his seat at the front of the court in front of a judge that had just seated himself down. The room buzzed with conversation as Harry lagged behind the family as they sat behind Charlie all breathing heavily. _How could things go back to normal so quickly? _Harry thought. The Weasleys had literally just be attacked by a wild man with a wand beside a court room and now the everyone had returned back to their previous mode with an added buzz ready for the next trial. Charlie's. Now, because of what had literally just happened, all Harry could think about was the man that had tried to kill him. Harry didn't recognise him form anywhere whatsoever, so he wasn't a Death Eater (they were all in Azkaban anyway). He was probably a strong supporter of Voldemort who had just been put down and obviously hated Harry so much. The fact that Harry and the rest of the Weasley's were nearly killed by a wizard unknown to them was raging through Harry's mind. All he could think about as he took his seat between Ron and Ginny on the shiny wooden bench behind Charlie was what had just happened. Harry, without realising, was looking around the expansive courtroom, pretending to admire the glossy floor or the high, arched ceiling, before his green eyes rested upon the judge's table. The table at which the elderly judge was sat was a broad, dark rectangular desk that stretched a couple of metres in length, dotted here and there with numerous piles of parchment, pots of ink and buckets of quills as well as a brass gavel and moving kangaroo figure. Behind this was the judge himself dressed in black satin robes tied with a white sash, upon his chest was a silhouetted white version of the Ministry logo and underneath curved lettering spelling the words; '_Minister for Australian Magic and High Court Judge Grabbleforn'. That's the Minister? _Harry thought to himself. Grabbleforn looked very old, his deep wrinkles in his dilapidated skin reflected that, and he also owned a pair of grey, orb-like eyes and a large, nose that was full of red spots. His hair was a dark grey and it and was short and wispy upon his head, on the right side of his face was a long deep scar running down his cheek, most likely the work of a Death Eater. It seemed the past twelve months had somewhat drained him of energy as he shakily smacked the hammer of his gavel down gently to attempt to stem the flow of conversation, this did not work. So he took to reaching into his gown-like robes and pulled out a wand before putting it to his throat and saying; "_Sonorous!" _his voice became suddenly magnified before he boomed in a croaky Australian accent, "Order in the court!"

As soon as those words left Grabbleforn's mouth the court went into immediate silence, "Now, I know that recent events has caused disturbance today but that does not give you all the right to disturb the goings on of this court," Grabbleforn complained in his magnified voice, "Unless you have forgotten this is a trial. The trial of a possible murderer! We will now begin."


	5. Court Battle

"We are gathered here today to witness the trial of Charles Weasley for his crimes of theft and distribution of war-time, Death Eater documents plus on suspicion of the kidnapping and murder of Mr and Mrs Granger," started Grabbleforn, "In presence in the dock is Mr Charlie Weasley along with aliases, witness and suspects; Ronald Billius Weasley, Ginevra Weasley, Hermione Jean Granger and Harry James Potter," a gasp shuddered around the court as Grabbleforn paused for effect, "High Court Judge and Minister for Australian Magic; Lachlan Harrison Angus Grabbleforn, prosecutor and head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Bruce Sappington."

At the mention of his name the writer of Charlie's trial letter stood up and gave a quick bow to the crowd of onlookers. Sappington was quite tall and gangly wearing a pair of creased, emerald robes, which matched his right eye, the other being hazel. Above his mismatched eyes lay a mop of straw-coloured hair that stuck up here and there. As Sappington arose from his bow he flattened his hair with a toothy grin upon his face.

"Minister, I'd like to begin if that's alright with you?" Sappington asked with a forced tone of politeness in what seemed an arrogant Australian accent.

"Please do Mr Sappington."

"Well I'd just like to inform the court personally of what Mr Weasley here has done to be here today. For the past week he has arrived from Britain and been able to infiltrate a weak Ministry and he was caught just the other day stealing various wartime documents concerning the whereabouts of some missing Muggle-borns and their relatives. After some interrogation we discovered that young Charlie here had been sending lots of this type of information to his friends at home as they had sent him off to help them find one of their parents. That being the mother and father of Hermione Granger, friend and accomplice of Harry Potter whom along with his friends Ronald and Ginevra Weasley accepted the information and has used it. As Mr and Mrs Granger are missing and are suspected to be deceased we took it into our own hands to investigate Mr Weasley's suspicious behaviour that seemed to be hidden from us."

Already, Harry had decided he did not like Sappington. Anger boiled through every synapse in Harry's body as he heard the rubbish that came from the prosecutor. He had accused all five of them of the murder of Hermione's mum and dad. Lies. Harry scratched his hand.

Sappington was now moping around the front of the courtroom, "Now, my first question is not to Mr Weasley but to Miss Granger. Would you like to stand Miss Granger?"

Harry turned his head, eyes wide, at Hermione who looked back at him in shock and nervousness. Harry mouthed to her to get up, so she did, "Yes?"

"Mr Weasley was unable to tell me what had happened to your parents to cause them to come to Australia last year. Would you please tell the court?"

Harry saw Hermione gulp and a tear was brought slowly to her eye.

"Shortly after Professor Dumbledore's murder on the Astronomy Tower and Voldemort had more or less come to power, Harry told myself and Ron that he was going on a mission to stop Voldemort. And knowing that my parents would be endangered because of my Muggle-born status and connection with Harry I decided to get them away from the main danger. I configured their memories so they thought they were Monica and Wendell Wilkins and I made them think they had no daughter and their life's ambition was to go to Australia. So they went and I never saw them again."

"Okay, okay, okay. Now, when did you decide to look for your parents?"

"Two days before Charlie entered Australia."

"May the fourth?"

"Yes."

"And why is it that you decided to sent Mr Weasley to here to infiltrate and steal and get himself arrested?"

"That obviously wasn't our original plan was it?" Hermione growled.

"To infiltrate or get arrested?" Sappington smirked sarcastically.

"Get arrested of course. I thought you knew better than that?"

"Now is not the time to back chat Miss Granger," a tone of anger appeared in his voice, "Now why did you decided what you did Miss Granger?"

"We had no idea where to start looking in Australia or how we'd do it until the idea came to get someone within your Ministry to gain some information to help us out. We knew it was wrong, yes, but the thing was we were trying to find my parents and thought nothing would come of it if we were caught."

"So, you sent Charlie and didn't consider the consequences? What imbecile created that plan? Yourself?"

"No. Me."

Harry stood up.

"Ah, good morning Mr Potter. So you came up with the idea to infiltrate the Ministry?"

"Yes."

"Not your first time as well. You did it yourself though last time I heard. Gringotts too."

"Correct."

"Minister, do you mind if I swap aliases here to question?" Sappington turned his head to look at Grabbleforn.

"Yes." Grabbleforn croaked.

"Miss Granger you may be seated."

She did.

"So, Mr Potter, you decided that it would be okay for your friend to break into our storage rooms and take whatever he wanted?"

"Yes, because what he was doing was trying to help."  
"Mr Potter, those documents were forcibly created on behalf of the Death Eaters and they concerned delicate issues including the subjugation of Muggle-borns."

"So why are on earth are they still around? Burn them."

"We need those documents for historical needs and to try and find the missing."

"Exactly. You lot were the first Ministry to reform, it only took a day to get yourselves more or less back together and working to prosecute and yet you haven't bothered to start looking!" a sudden rage was taking over Harry as he spoke.

"Surely you have seen the damage to this place, we are not in fit conditions to operate properly!" Sappington retorted slamming his hand down on the dock Charlie was sat in, he was taken aback as sparks flew from Sappington's wand enclosed in his fist.

"The Atrium and the Minister's office? That's it! The rooms where the files are are fine! The other rooms to start looking are fine! So what is wrong with us starting to look for people's parents?! Its been two weeks since the war and everyone is pretending everything is back to normal when it isn't! People are missing, dead bodies are missing and when we, the resistance against Voldemort, start to help you arrest our friend?! What is wrong with you?!"  
Sappington glared at Harry as the court mumbled in silent agreement with Harry, even Grabbleforn.

"No more questions for the witness," Sappington droned, "Minister, can I question the defendant please?"

"If you wish Sappington."

Charlie, without being asked rose out of his chair and stared directly at Sappington who glared back in anger, "So, Mr Weasley. You were doing all this on behalf on your friend's wishes?"

"Yes. I wouldn't murder Hermione's parents."

"Not my question was it Mr Weasley?"

"Freedom of speech Mr Sappington, comes into mind."  
"Whatever. Now, I am sort of able to accept the fact that you might have been rifling through those documents for the basis of searching for Mr and Mrs Granger but I have no proof they even had their minds configured to come here. What if you brought them here and left them here Mr Weasley under the Imperius Curse?"

"Because I've never been that close to a Death Eater to have one put on me and yes we do have proof. Do you mind Minister if Hermione shows Mr Sappington wrong?"

"No, no."

Hermione stood up from her seat, wand aloft, "_Extremema_ _Prior Incantato_." She screwed up her face in dire concentration the spell she had cast so long ago. Then all of a sudden a smoky image of wand in a female hand appeared shooting a colourless light towards the back of a pair of heads with the voice (Hermione's) in the background saying '_Obliviate'. _Then the image disappeared and Hermione sat straight back down, tears rolling down her cheeks as Ron put his left arm around her in comfort.

"Enough proof for you sir?" Charlie mocked.

"Yes, yes, alright. But still there is no proof that the couple are still alive. Yes I believe that Miss Granger sent them here to be safe and then you may of possibly followed and killed them. Then last week those lot gave you an excuse to come over here in the aftermath of the war to clean things up."  
"Thing is why would I do that?"

"Clean up? Because you killed them?"

"No, not that. Why would I kill them anyway? What motive do you have? Are you just arresting me for publicity and some credit for doing something right?!"

"Of course we have your motive sorted! Now, is it true your older brother got married last August?" Sappington had calmed in tone but still had a note of sarcastic arrogance.

"Yes, why?!"

"And is it true there was some kind of loving relationship between your youngest brother and Miss Granger?"

"Sort of yeah but why…?!"

"Well, possibly you were jealous of your elder brother's find of happiness in his new wife, something you could not get and maybe you fancied Miss Granger as well and now she had been taken by your brother you decided to act out revenge on her!"

"WHAT?! ARE YOU MAD?!" Charlie retorted wildly.

"So, what? You did not feel any kind of jealousy towards William?"

"Well, maybe...but, wait!"

"And have you ever felt any feelings towards Miss Granger?"

"Yes!"

"So you admit you fancied her and when she started with her love interest, your brother, you acted out irrationally?!"

"When I said I had feelings not like that!"

"Then what?!"

"I love her yes, but as a sister, nothing else!" Hermione was seen blushing as Charlie's ears went bright red like Ron's did.

"So you deny you murdered Mr and Mrs Granger?"

"Yes and all evidence concludes that I didn't. And that what I was doing in the Ministry was a good deed right?"

"That's for the jury and the judge to decide Mr Weasley. No more questions Minister."

"Then Mr Weasley you may be seated."

Charlie nodded fervently at Grabbleforn before sitting back down, so did Sappington, knocking his chair over first time round.

"Now, I think that the jury agree that a clear result has come from this short trial today," Grabbleforn announced to the silent court, "But please may the jury quickly make a decision so we can all go home. It is well past my tea time."

The court laughed in unison as they then huddled together in the middle of the stands to decide upon Charlie's fate as Grabbleforn polished his gavel and, looking livid, Sappington pounded the wood around him. The Weasleys began conversation with Charlie.

"Are you alright Charlie?" Bill asked his younger brother.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"You really fought your corner mate." Ron said.

"I know. I wasn't going to stand there and watch that guy say that your mum and dad were dead Hermione. And by my hand as well the bastard."

"I know, I know. I don't believe they let a man like that work here. He's dreadful."

"I guessed, the way he launched into us all."

"Yeah." Harry sighed without really concentrating on the conversation, his mind had drifted to Sappington and his abnormal behaviour. Something, Harry thought, was wrong. He did not believe that this man would ever question the word of Harry Potter (_Bit cocky Harry, _he thought), and that he would rave at teenagers, accusing them of murder just to get results. Harry had been surprised no violence had occurred yet inside the courtroom because of the rage displayed by Sappington. There was a feeling inside Harry that made him realise that Grabbleforn had noticed this rather peculiar behaviour in Sappington too as Harry noticed him eye Sappington with an air of intrigue and disgust. Harry thought, unbelievably, that possibly Sappington may be Imperiused. Harry distinctly remembered the recent encounter of the mad wizard and of course Sappington would have had meetings with the man. What if he had cast the Imperius spell on Sappington and been able to control him making Sappington control the guards. It may of looked like he was being carted off to prison but what if those guards were being controlled to help him escape? These thoughts Harry knew were sort of far-fetched but possible all the same. He had to know. But how? How would Sappington's secret second instinct be revealed to everyone before it was too late and the prosecutor lost it under control? What if he started to attack and ended up in trouble himself and no one found out what had happened to him. Harry knew the truth. He just didn't know what to do. So for now, out of earshot of the rest of the Weasleys, Harry expressed his inner thoughts to Ginny, Ron and Hermione. But before they had chance to say anything Grabbleforn rose from his chair and spoke in his still magnified voice.

"Jury have you made your decision?"

"Yes." An elderly woman had rose from the mass of viewers.

"On account of theft and distribution of war-time, Death Eater documents for initial Dark Art purposes and or the removing of evidence of a crime do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty?"

"Not guilty."

"And on the account of the kidnapping and murder of Mr and Mrs Granger do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty?"

"Not guilty."

Sappington snapped. Screaming in utter rage he kicked aside his chair in anguish before spinning on the spot and directing his wand straight at the chandelier hanging above court, "RELASHIO!" The chandelier dropped and smashed into millions of hazardous shards of glass that skewered the floor.

"I told you!" Harry exclaimed at the other three.

"What the devil is happening Sappington?!"  
"Minister, he's Imperiused! I can tell! That mad wizard he's taken him and probably more over!"

"Maybe that is correct Harry Potter but it doesn't take away the fact that our trap has worked. You fell into it and you must now pay the price for the murder you committed! BOMBARDA MAXIMA!"

Harry ducked with the rest of the Weasleys as the first three rows were blown apart by the extreme force of the spell which rippled backwards blowing all the parchment askew causing Grabbleforn to duck under his desk, taking out his wand in the process. Charlie scrambled from his front row seat, most of which had been demolished, to the Weasleys who huddled, hiding behind a scrap of still standing wood.

"There's no where to run and no where to hide Potter! I have control of all the guards in this room! You are surrounded! Surrender or everyone dies!"

"NO!" Harry bellowed standing up and swishing his wand directly at the desk behind Sappington, "DIFFINDO!" The desk that was guarding the Minister snapped into two separate pieces, the spell had distracted Sappington who when in front of the broken table Harry shouted, "EXPULSO!" As soon as the jet of light struck the pieces of wood they caused an explosion that threw Sappington several yards away, singing his hair and clothes, as the floor rattled like a small earthquake had hit it. While Sappington regained balance and was able to stand up the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione had agreed in silence to split across the court as many of the jury fled the scene.

"PROTEGO IMPENETRA MAXIMA!" Sappington screamed pointing his wand at the exit that was immediately shrouded in a see through bubble which when some of the jury reached were unable to penetrate and so they hid in desperation.

"GUARDS! ATTACK!"

Every guard that surrounded the perimeter of the courtroom took out their wands in unison before brandishing them fiercely and showering the crowd in an array of spells, which either took out people, maimed them or they were blocked. Suddenly wizards and witches from the jury and Australian Wizengamot were duelling with the court guards as Sappington caused damage to the courtroom and shoved aside people with magic and force to get to Harry who was shooting spells randomly at the guards himself moving further back.

"EXCELSIOSEMPRA!" at Sappington's command an unlucky middle-aged wizard was launched off his feet and crashing into a portrait of the Minister as a young witch was dangling by her ankle because of Sappington's latest incantation, "LEVICORPUS!"

Meanwhile, Harry was fighting a guard with a disfigured face whilst back-to-back with Ron who was casting spells against a balding wizard. "STUPEFY!" the guard Harry had been duelling was thrown backwards into a bench out cold before Ron successfully caused the body-bind curse to work on his opponent, the pair they pushed the unconscious body aside as they hid underneath another bench.

"Sappington's been Imperiused to kill me by that wizard and so I need to cast the counter-curse to snap him out of it. This means I need to get face to face with him." Harry explained to Ron who was nursing a bloody nose.

"But he'll kill you in an instant!" Ron shouted wiping aside a splodge of blood on his face.

"Why kill straight away when you can have a fight?! I can tell he'd like to duel this out to end don't you?"

"Well, yeah…but be careful mate!"

"Don't worry I will!"

Harry then jumped up as Ron nodded serenely at him to go ahead, then Ron ran to the other side of the court to knock over a black haired wizard with a stunning spell to the small of his back. Harry then twiddled his wand in his hand before staring at Sappington who launched the member of the jury who had announced the verdict crashing to the floor.

"SAPPINGTON!"

Sappington lowered his wand to grin manically with a glint of aggression in his cold eyes straight at Harry, "Ah, Mr Potter you've decided to show yourself after taking refuge underneath a wooden bench! Ha!"

"Whatever Sappington! If you wanna fight then bring it!"  
"Okay then Potter… STUPEFY!"

"PROTEGO!" the force of his own shield charm repelled against Harry slightly, making him drop to the floor and roll awkwardly over bits of wooden bench before seeing something brass glint in the light underneath the wreckage of Grabbleforn's desk. The gavel. "Waddi wassi!" the gavel then shot out of his place and rocketed straight at Sappington's privates, at command of Harry's aloft wand, which made him drop to his knees groaning but with some energy unknown he fired a spell back at his opponent;

"Jelly legs!" Harry who been regaining balance felt his legs give way before he dropped to the floor slipping and sliding as Sappington, ignoring his private pain, stood up tall and flicked his wand at a bench stood next to Harry. "Casus!" the bench then ripped from its foundations and slowly began to fall upon Harry who was squirming awkwardly to avoid the heavy object falling upon him, then as it crashed Harry felt the curse lift and he was able to jump to his left avoiding the bench. As he glided above ground he fired a spell at Sappington's legs.

"RETRO ITER!" Sappington then slipped backwards and crashed onto the floor. As he struggled to get back upon his feet Harry shot up like a bullet and deflected a spell shot at him by Sappington ("SECTUMSEMPRA!"). Then pair then fell silent staring into each other's eyes.

"Let me take off the curse Sappington! For your own good!" Harry bellowed above the sounds of spells and curses flying by.

"No Potter!"

"Why not?! Why do you want to be controlled by a mad man?!"

"Because of his guidance I have never felt so powerful!" the manic glint in Sappington's eyes glowed saliently.  
"Exactly, you only feel it! You aren't that powerful!"  
"You're lucky I haven't killed you yet Potter!"  
"Why haven't you?! Orders from your master?!"

"No, I like to play with my food before I eat it!" Sappington was twirling around his wand jetting out sparks here and there.

"Not before you tell who did this to you!"

"You know it is that wizard so why ask?!"

"Is he one of the missing Death Eaters?!"

"And what if he is?!"

"I need to know his name!"

"Why should I tell the enemy what they need to know?!"

"To save your own skin!"

"I will not answer you!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Harry had reacted first out of pure frustration. Sappington, under the influence of the mad wizard knew things that Harry needed to know. Now, that Harry had cast that spell Sappington had also lost control and had decided to take action too, but his was much eviler in intention.

"CRUCIO!"

Sappington's spell over powered Harry's disarmament charm as Harry got the full blow of both spells, his wand flew behind him as he was launched backwards before, several inches off the ground, started to squirm and shake violently. The torture curse was working efficiently; Harry had not experienced the effects of this Unforgivable curse since he had pretended to be dead in the presence of Voldemort and the Death Eaters in the Forbidden Forest. As this painful memory came to Harry Sappington approached him and let him down. Nose to nose, Harry breathing heavily, Sappington jabbed his own wand firmly into Harry's temple.

"Didn't you want to finish our little conversation Potter? No? Oh, yes, I remember you decided to disarm me! Well, backfire on you Potter! Look who's got the upper hand! Me! Try anything stupid and everyone in here dies!"

Sappington then stood tall and directed his wand back at Harry, "Incarcerous!" Harry was then bonded within a mass of tight ropes that held him down but he was still able to shuffle, something he did whilst Sappington talked. "The court today all know the name of the man who Potter needs to know of so I am going to wipe every person's memory of that name from their minds. This spell will affect all those that have mingled with him since he was arrested. So, prepare to forget! OBLIVIATE LEGO!" The room shook slightly as many jets of light swam out from the tip of Sappington's wand before entering the skulls of various different people in the court whose eyes became unfocused after the spell settled. During this time though, Harry had shuffled backwards towards his wand, he span around on his backside before using the only free fingers he owned to pick up the wand. "_Relashio." _He whispered, and his bonds loosened as Sappington turned round to check upon his trussed up opponent who now stood tall behind him, wand in hand.

"Imperio!"

Sappington ducked the spell and aimed a response at Harry's chest, "TRUNCO!"

Harry deflected the spell with ease, instead it caused a nearby guard's chest to be slashed as Harry instinctively reacted to this situation, he roared, "STUPEFY!" as he heard Charlie's voice bellow from nowhere, "EXPELLIARMUS!"

Sappington was then taken straight off of his feet and launched backwards but as he had been hit by the incantations he had screamed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" and when Charlie's disarming charm had hit Sappington his wand flew out of his hand in mid-air, the familiar jet of green light spurting out. The wand tip turned to its owner as it came to rest on the floor. The curse Harry had not seen been used since his battle with Voldemort struck Sappington in the arm. As he had not received the full blast of the spell it took him a few more seconds to close his eyes. Soon enough his straw haired head fell against the shiny, wood littered surface. Bruce Sappington was dead. Harry dropped his wand and gulped in mere shock as Grabbleforn rushed forwards towards Sappington whose lifeless body lay strewn upon the floor. Hermione also stepped forward, her wand aloft, "Imperio lego!" the spell she had cast had similar qualities to that of the late Sappington, though these jets flew into the heads of the guards. Hermione had cast the counter curse and now they all shook their heads and rubbed their eyes in disbelief as they looked upon the scene they were in. Harry then saw Charlie make his way through a line of on lookers and reach Harry.

"Harry, don't you dare think that this was all your fault because it wasn't. It was mostly mine and the rest that wizard. If I hadn't of tried to disarm him while you were stunning him his wand wouldn't of turned on him but it did." Charlie explained blandly.

"And I blame myself because if I hadn't of sent you here and have myself follow then you wouldn't of got into trouble and he wouldn't be dead would he?" Harry almost retorted, regret was evident in his voice.

"Harry, that man was under control by a Death Eater, one of few who are still out there. He's just one man that can be easily defeated. And Sappington is just one man out of six million people."

"But he isn't the first to die because of me is he? I thought that once the war was over and Voldemort was dead that I would have to fight anymore or that anyone would die but see what's happened? My anger has led to his death in court."  
"Harry, don't work yourself up mate. Everything's going to be fine."

"Yes, but what happens when his family find out that Harry Potter was responsible, hey? Once this gets out…" Harry moaned, now twiddling his thumbs anxiously.

"People will understand. Trust me you won't dwell over this anymore."

"Yeah, but…"  
"I said trust me Harry. Trust me that you will accept that it was me that caused this. Not you."

"Charlie, I can't let you do that."

"I've got out of court once, who's to say I can't do it again?"

"But what if they send you to prison?"

"Nothing can be worse than living with my mother, honestly." He laughed at his own sentence here but Harry still stood there staring not at Ron's second eldest brother but at the well-hidden corpse of Sappington.

"I need to see the body." This made Charlie's eyes widen in horror.

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do Charlie. Doing so will give me some sort of…"

"Closure?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Since the war ended I've still not be able to think straight or sleep properly. All that goes through my mind at night is images of those that died; Dumbledore, Colin, Dobby, Tonks, Sirius, Remus…Fred," Charlie shook his head and turning quickly around absent minded, "I want it all to stop. I want to live a normal life and forget it all but this, today, has reminded me of the horror of it all. I need to see Sappington, Charlie," Harry bent down to pick up his wand, "If you don't let me past Charlie I'll jinx you."

"Fine. Go ahead."

Harry then walked past Charlie who stared at his back as he split the small crowd around Sappington's body. As they moved aside Harry took a quick glance around and saw some wizards attempting to remove the shield charm as others were treating many of the wounded. Guards helping guards, jury members helping each other and then guards helping the jury and vice versa. Then, Harry saw a gap for him to squeeze through to reach the body of Sappington. His gangly anatomy was lay tangled amongst a pile of wooden chunks, his straw coloured mop of hair was almost pulled back and lay on the floor. His set of eyes were half closed, Harry could see through the thin gap in his eyelids his dull coloured pupils dazed. Harry gulped again as he bent down beside Sappington's head, which saw a gash on the left side, and a bruise above his right eye. His mouth was slightly agape and slack, a strand of blood fresh upon his chin coming from it. _The last death of the war, _Harry thought to himself. Harry had decided to himself that in all his power he would not let anybody else die after today at the hands of the unknown, missing Death Eater. Bruce Sappington, the Australian prosecutor, would be the last to die for Harry.


	6. The Two Ministries

"Harry, they've more or less lifted the shield charm on the door. I think its best if we leave. Dad said the press are guaranteed to come in sooner or later so we'd better scram before they get their paws on you. Come on." It was Ginny. She had placed her hand upon his shoulder as he looked upon Sappington's corpse, until she had finished speaking Harry did not move. Then, he decided to follow her to gather with the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione on the other side of the courtroom.

"My gosh, Harry dear." Mrs Weasley ran forward and seized Harry and placed him into a bear like hug. Once she released him, Harry stood aback and saw Grabbleforn making his way through the thickening crowd to them.

"Ah, Mr Potter. I daresay are you alright?"

"Yes, Minister, fine."

"Good, good my boy. Now I have reason to believe that a gang of press are making their way here so you better make yourself and your family scarce."

"Don't worry Minster we were just leaving."

"Well, you better set off now. By our own laws we are not allowed to blockade any of the entrances to the Ministry so they will get in through the entrance that you came in from. So, hurry. All of you!"

The group took a quick look at each other before Mr Weasley took charge, "Okay Weasleys, lets go!"

The Weasleys, Harry and Hermione rushed towards the exit whose see through bubble had burst as they all entered the partly destroyed corridor where they had previously battled the mad wizard. Harry overtook the rest as he reached the golden grilled lift and wrenched it open leaving it open for the rest to enter into it. Soon enough the rattling lift had carried them all the way back up to the Atrium (the cool Australian woman's voice said "_Floor One. The Atrium and office of the Minister for Australian Magic."_

Harry stepped out of the lift quickly before he dashed to the black door he had entered earlier that evening and yanked it open as the rest piled in behind him. They then all quickly scrambled up the stone steps of the pitch-black cavern before reaching the concrete wall. Harry fumbled in his pocket for his wand in desperation but as he did Bill struck the concrete with his wand that split into door and the Weasleys rushed out into the dimming sunlight. It was nearly sunset now as Harry blinked in the bright sunlight but before he knew it horde of robed wizards and witches were running at him. Their hands full of Quick-notes quills, rolls of parchment and magical cameras which flashed madly into Harry's eyes also making him choke on the odd purple smoke emitted by them. He heard his name being repeated in an Australian accent here and there as they all crowded around him and parts of the Weasley's family.

"HARRY POTTER! HARRY POTTER! IT'S HIM! IT'S HIM!"

"Mr Potter can we have a word? Hello? Mr Potter?!"

"We've heard about what has happened today? Is it true you killed the prosecutor?!"  
"HEY! Harry! Canberra Local Magic News here, wondering if you could talk to us about what happened in the courtroom corridor today?!"

Harry could barely breathe within the mass of people crowding him, he wanted to escape even if he had to use force, but he couldn't find his wand. In the line of reporters he could just see some of them being pushed backwards by someone that Harry couldn't see but then he heard a familiar voice roar, "PROTEGO MAXIMA!" The pressgang were then all pushed backwards by the force of Damaldus Cave's shield charm, which Harry realised, had stopped the mob attacking him. Behind Harry, were the Weasleys looking stunned. But Harry was more attracted to the rusty object in Cave's other hand. The saucepan, which Cave pointed his wand at and say, "Portus longa!" It began to emanate its familiar blue glow which shined on Cave's brutish face, "Hold on!" he told the rest. They then all placed a finger on the Portkey and before Harry had chance to acclimatise to his new situation he was taken off his feet like a hook was attached to his naval. Colours and shapes were blurred as he whizzed around before slamming into the ground beneath him that was wooden and was able to smash the lenses in glasses to pieces. Harry then looked around him whilst lay down at saw that he had returned back to his home. The Burrow.

Harry then stood up and removed his broken glasses off of his face and repaired them lazily with a swish of wand (_"Reparo"_), before looking around his surroundings. Stood around in the dilapidated back garden was the Weasleys as well as Cave who was attending to Bill and Fleur who had hit the ground harder than expected and both had seemed to of fractured some part of their body. As everyone was getting used to being back home George burst out of the back door and into the garden and gazed in shock upon the scene he found himself in. Harry along with Ron, Hermione and Ginny went to talk to him.

"Am I missing something here because you've all landed out of nowhere with a big Ministry bloke with all your bags missing and looking knackered and hurt. What the bloody hell's going on Ron?" George asked his younger brother looking in dismay upon the scene.

"On the way to court we all got attacked by a prisoner," Ron started as George looked at him bewildered, "then after that had finished Charlie's trial went ahead and he was proven innocent."

"Right, but that doesn't explain what's going on really."

"Well, the prosecutor was under the Imperius curse, one cast by the mad wizard we had been attacked by, and surprisingly enough this guy had control of all the guards and they all attacked. Harry went head to head with the prosecutor and when Harry shot his last spell, Charlie intervened and the guy got hit by his own killing curse."

"Christ! Are you all okay?"

"Yeah more or less, Fleur and Bill got a bad knock on the way back but thanks to Cave were alright. We were nearly crushed by a mob of press when we got out of court, that's why he's with us."

"You got attacked by the press?"  
"Yeah, we'll tell you more later. But I think we all need a cuppa first, don't you?"

"Yeah."

Harry had been listening to this conversation between brothers but was looking upon the others in the garden as the other four piled into the Burrow.

"Come on Harry. Come inside."

Harry obeyed George and walked inside to the comforts of the Burrow, partly leaving behind the horrors of the recent hours that had passed in Australia.

Since the events in the courtroom and its corridor at the Ministry of Australian Magic, Cave had left the family and returned the next day along Radling with all their bags that they had left down in Dover. Also, they had been visited by a member of the Auror office and Department of Law Enforcement, both of who informed them the after effects of the battle in the courtroom. They told Charlie that he was completely innocent and that no more proceedings would take place concerning him. Also, they told them how they had put out a whole team onto finding Hermione's parents using all the information they had. A month had now passed them quickly, it was now the middle of June and the days were becoming longer, the nights shorter. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione had found themselves being constantly worked by Mr and Mrs Weasley, to keep them occupied as they waited for news about Mr and Mrs Granger. And to Harry, more importantly, the missing, mad wizard that was a Death Eater. They had had no news about him which of course made Harry pretty down trodden throughout the rest of May as he grudgingly de-gnomed the garden and cut up vegetables. It was now the 16th of June and Harry now found himself sitting beside Ginny in the Burrow kitchen eating his lunch of bacon sandwiches when Hermione and Ron drifted into the room. Ron was holding a roll of parchment in his hand and was beginning to unfurl it as Hermione perched herself on top of stool.

"There are reason why you've decided to bring down a scroll to dinner with you today Ron?" Ginny asked her brother sarcastically, Harry grinned at this outburst.

"Yes actually. It's a letter."

"Who to?" Harry asked quickly.

"Us." Hermione joined in.

"Who from is better question isn't it?" Ginny said.

"The Minister for Australian Magic; Grabbleforn."

Harry jumped up suddenly knocking his down, which Ginny picked up before following Harry to Ron who was sat beside Hermione at the worktop. Harry took the letter off Ron who was holding it out, "What does it say Harry?" Ginny asked him.

Harry quickly examined the letter which it seemed was from the Ministry of Australian Magic as it was headed with its logo, instead of explaining the content of the letter Harry decided it best to read it out instead;

"'_Dear Mr Ron and Miss Ginevra Weasley, Miss Hermione Granger and Mr Harry Potter,_

_Since the tragic events on the fifteenth of May down in level ten of our Ministry, as you know, I set a whole team upon finding Miss Granger's beloved parents in our city and I am glad to say that our work has progressed incredibly well and we are very close to finding them. The team I ordered to do this have acquired various images of Mr and Mrs Granger from sources around Canberra and after talks with the Muggle authorities we are one step closer to finding them. Unfortunately we have to get through many legal proceedings before we able to gain an address for them because they have brought up an argument that we might actually be Death Eaters in disguise and that until proven that we are actually of government authority we can't get anywhere. Apologies for that but soon enough, probably by the autumn you will have you parents back._

_I would also like to inform you of the work we are performing to try and track down the deranged Death Eater that attacked you upon your visit to court. As you know upon Mr Sappington's command we all forgot the name of the Death Eater but we do remember the reasons for his recent arrest and his previous crimes, thing is we did not realise he was a Death Eater at all. When we returned to our offices we immediately went to our storage rooms to look for any information we could find on him but all had even been burnt beyond repair or stolen. So, now we are unsure of his whereabouts but we are desperately trying our best to locate him quickly enough. Our theories tell us that he is probably in Britain now that he has escaped our grasp. But as you know your government is not totally reformed and without a Minister but soon enough that will change due to circumstances we think over here are unnecessary. Once your Ministry is back on its feet we hope to work closely with them to track down this Death Eater as well as getting some guidance on how to find Miss Granger's mother and father._

_For now though I must dash as I have a very important meeting with various members of the Auror Office on how we shall deal with the Death Eater once caught._

_Yours truly,_

_Lachlan Harrison Angus Grabbleforn, Minister for Australian Magic and High Court Judge_.'"

"Oh my…" that was all that Harry could manage as he placed down the roll of parchment. They were close to finding Hermione's mum and dad, which of course in itself was wonderful, but then Grabbleforn had cruelly taken away the feeling of joy when he mentioned that they had not progressed in finding the Death Eater. For all Harry knew, that dangerous man could be wandering the streets of the Muggle world killing as went, planning to breakout the rest of them. Harry then shook his head to remove this scary thought, he replaced it with fake happiness, "Hermione, they've nearly found them…I can't believe it!" Harry rushed forward and embraced his friend in a tight hug, as he released her both Ron and Ginny gave him an odd stare.

"What's wrong can't I be happy for my friend now?"

"Harry, we'd thought you'd be a bit naffed they hadn't got anywhere with the Dea…" Ron started.

"That doesn't matter to me," Harry lied, gritting his teeth, "What matters is that Hermione's getting her parents back."

"I know but…Harry, be serious, that Death Eater, out on the loose….surely you care, mate?"

"Well, yeah but…"

"Harry its okay," Hermione assured him kindly, "Its fine that you care more about that mad man. Any normal person would. He's dangerous and nearly killed all four of us."

"He wouldn't of acted if I hadn't of stared at him."

"Of course you were gonna stare at him. He was mental." Ginny added in.

"Kinda guessed that."

"Don't worry yourself, Harry. If he comes for you, we're all here to protect you. If he comes here and tries to kill you, he'll have to get through us first." Ginny's soft voice gave Harry a sort of strengthening boost.

"Yeah, mate. I don't see why that nutter would come here anyway, does he seriously think he has a chance against the Chosen One?" Ron joined in this morale boosting now along with Hermione.

"The second he steps in through that door we'll always be one step ahead and we'll beat him and hand him over to the Ministry to be punished with the others."

A thought had occurred to Harry on the subject of punishment, "That reminds me. When are the Death Eaters due for execution anyway?"

"Its not yet been decided. The Wizengamot's original decision was ruled as a rushed one and now they're in debates over what to do. Some say that they should be executed by Wizard Execution, be subject to the Dementor's Kiss before left out in the wilderness and then some say lifetime imprisonment in Nurmenguard or Azkaban. The arguments between are that Wizard Execution would be an act just as bad as the ones they committed, also they say the Dementors are unreliable and still are under Dark influences and then there's the thing that Nurmenguard and Azkaban are known for their recent break-ins and break-outs and seem not good enough punishments for the Death Eaters. To be honest I can't decide myself." Hermione finished shake her bushy hair from side to side.  
"I don't care what they decide as long as they're punished. The things they did to people can never be forgiven. They tortured and murdered hundreds for no real reason, tearing families apart as long as they given what they need then I'm fine. Where are they all now anyway?"

"Azkaban, remember. They've more or less refurbished the whole place and quadrupled security with thousands of shield charms, jinxes and hexes, more Dementors than ever and a whole legion of highly trained guards from all over the world. There's no way any of them can escape themselves."  
"But what about someone getting them out?"

"I think there's only a very small chance of that happening. Are you thinking that the mad wizard would dare try? The whole Ministry knows his face, the whole country in fact. They've sent out wanted posters everywhere but that's not going to do so well if he changes his appearance."

"How though? He won't be able to get ingredients for Polyjuice Potion."

"He's got two wands remember." Ginny was getting involved in the conversation now.

"And what if he gains accomplices?"

"Like who Harry? Who would be mad enough to help the most dangerous wizard around?" Ron asked him seriously.

"Well, what about…the Malfoys?"

"The Malfoys? Are you serious mate?"

"Well, yeah."

"Don't be ridiculous Harry," Hermione cut across the best friends, "You saved Draco's life, you told his mother he was alive and you allowed the pair of them to go free. They wouldn't betray your trust in them. They didn't wand to be apart of Voldemort's clan anyway did they."

"Wouldn't be the first time someone betrayed me after I helped them. And anyway, if they wanted nothing to do with it why on earth did they scarper when the Ministry arrived. Both of them ran away, leaving Lucius on his own to be arrested. She was nearly caught when she went to his trial but she Disapparated just in time. How do we know that mother and son aren't plotting against us? How do we know they haven't met with this Death Eater? That's already three of them ready and willing to break the rest out for revenge on behalf of Draco's dad…oh, and don't let me forget, Goyle's probably out there too with them."

"Harry, where's the proof that there will be a rebellion, hey?" Ron said, "We can't say anything will happen till it does."

"I'm not gonna sit here and wait till Draco and his mum, Goyle and that mad wizard go and break out the others and come here to kill us!"

"Harry, just calm down." Ginny murmured softly to him.

"I don't know if I can. A murderous animal is out there, possibly befriending my school time enemy, his best friend and mother. Together they can break the rest out and start a new evil regime!" Harry exclaimed, banging his fist onto the table.

"Harry? That wizard at St Mungo's…what if he was the same one in Australia? I mean, the Aurors did say he had been using Polyjuice potion. We never saw his real face." Hermione stated, leaving the others gobsmacked.

"Gawd, yeah! I bet it is him! And now that we've defeated him twice he'll definitely want and need help and he'll go to the Malfoys for it! Together they'll kill tens maybe even hundreds of people!"

"No, they won't! Because the Ministry will find the wizard!" Ron shouted back.

"How can they when the bloody Ministry is a mess! They haven't even got a Minister!"

Hermione's face temporarily screwed up in concentration before relaxing again, "Harry, that reminds me of something Grabbleforn mentioned in his letter."

"Oh yeah…"Ginny also seemed to click.

"I remember now, he mentioned something about us getting a Minister soon but through things that over in Australia they thought 'unnecessary.'"

"He did as well. But obviously if they think its unnecessary then the that means they're messing around before they actually get a Minister. I thought Kingsley was in charge anyway now." Harry distinctly remembered Kingsley being forced the position of temporary Minister for Magic to him. So why then was Britain choosing a different one if they're was a good enough one already.

"He is in charge but obviously they want someone more permanent." Hermione suggested,

"And how they're doing it isn't agreeing with the Australians. I just want someone to be given the job and work to be started on finding that lunatic and your parents."

"I wonder how they're gonna decide who to give the job too. Hope its Kingsley." Ron said.

"Same, but knowing our luck it won't be."

Harry then walked back over to the kitchen table and sat himself down, he shoved his plate of bacon sandwiches aside and stared at the garden through the dusty window. But he couldn't sit there any longer, instead he got back up and started to leave the room.

"I'll be in our room, Ron. I need time to think."

"Harry!"

The latter was taking a deep drink from his bottle of Butterbeer whilst having a conversation about the Wronski Feint with Charlie at the previously set two tables, which were ready to be laden with food and drink for dinner that evening, when Hermione burst into the back garden quickly followed by Ron and Ginny. Harry had been dwelling over the possible alliance of the mysterious Death Eater, the Malfoys and Goyle and the fact that Hermione's parents were still missing until Charlie had persuaded him to chat while they waited for dinner. They had been talking for just twenty minutes when the other three had run into the garden, enclosed in Hermione's hand was a newspaper; that night's _Evening Prophet. _Harry wondered what could possibly be so important about the paper that would make Hermione nearly trip over Bill's chair leg in excitement.

"What's up? Found an advert for book dusters again?" Charlie laughed at Harry's remark.

"It wasn't a book duster, it was a enchanted feather that kept your books stain resistant. That's not the point anyway! The point is…well read for yourself, everyone else has!"

She shoved the paper into his hand, before he began to read the blazing headline plastered across it he raised his eyebrows in curio as the rest of them took a seat beside him and Charlie. The article was headed with a title of; 'MINISTER FOR MAGIC ELECTION ANNOUNCED'. Harry, who had taken a sip of his Butterbeer had a spit-take as he spat out the mouthful of liquid onto the floor in shock. He then decided to read on;

"_'Earlier today, at twelve pm sharp, the temporary Minister for Magic and former head of the Auror Office, Kingsley Shacklebolt gathered the national pressgangs of the Wizarding World for an announcement outside one of the public entrances to the Ministry of Magic in London. He began by informing on us that recently they had joined forces with a team in Canberra (organised by the Minister for Australian Magic, Lachlan H.A. Grabbleforn) in order to find the parents of Harry Potter's close friend, Hermione Granger. Also, he told us that no progress had been made in finding the elusive missing Death Eater who existence nobody had heard of until his poster was plastered all over our walls the other week with no name. It seems the wizard in question was a secret assailant of You Know Who's that was caught finally by the Australian authorities but his magic has been able to wipe their minds of his name, and all documents created about him in Canberra have been stolen or destroyed. Our own Ministry is now looking deep into their records to find any sign of this mad man._

_Moving on from this, the main reason for Mr Shacklebolt's gathering today was to announce the beginning of something which will change every British wizard and witch's way of life Today, he told the press how a permanent Minister for Magic was soon to be allocated in his current position but it was not yet to be decided, as the next Minister will be decided by public vote – or in other words, an election. A government election has not taken place within the Ministry for over 1,000 years when they decided to build Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. The post of Minister is up for the taking of any high members of the Ministry, previously high members or people of political occupation or views that think themselves worthy. All candidates must create a political party alike the ones in Muggle politics, consisting of a team of back benchers which will help out the new Minister carry out his or her laws across the country's magical constituencies. It seems highly likely that current Minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt, will apply and there are rumours of family friend to Harry Potter, Percy Weasley, applying. The latter has been absent from the Magical world since the Battle of Hogwarts where his younger brother was killed. His family are unsure of his whereabouts but this new rumour implies his return to the political fray. All candidates must have a party name and objective prepared for a meeting in the office of the Minister for Magic by next week where several members of the Wizengamot will be in presence to discuss what the candidates need to do for their campaigns which will begin on the 1st of July._

_The Daily Prophet will bring to you the full facts on all the candidates after their meeting next week and will inform on the voting situation._

_By Xenophilius Lovegood._

Harry then looked up from reading to see the shocked expressions upon Ginny and Bill's faces and by the way they were looking at him he must have one too.

"What on earth is going on in the Wizengamot's head?!" Harry exclaimed rather loudly. His outburst made Mrs Weasley jump as she lay down a tray cluttered with flagons of beverages.

"I agree with Harry!" Ginny said almost instantly.

"Same, I don't see why they need to get a new Minister for Magic when they've already got one that's perfect for the job! Kingsley, was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, head of the Auror Office, he survived the war by fighting off You Know Who but yet they decide to sack him!"  
"They're not saying they're sacking. Didn't you hear? Kingsley is most likely to become a candidate isn't he?"  
Hermione said.

"Since when did you believe every word from the Prophet?!" Harry retorted.

"Harry, it was written by Luna's dad!"

"And…? He tried to hand us over to the Death Eaters once or do you not remember that?!"  
"Luna was holed up in a cellar at the Malfoys! He did what he thought would save her! And that's not the point! We were talking about the election!"

"Which of course is a load of rubbish! Even if they did need to replace the Minister an election in a Wizarding world would never work! Why do you think they dropped them over a thousand years ago Hermione?" Charlie stated.

"Democracy in the Muggle world always works out and people like it that way Charlie! The way Ministers are chosen in our world, to me, represents Muggle Communism!" Hermione shouted back at him.

"I know what Communism is Hermione and this is not it!" Charlie bellowed, "Communism is pure equality between people when different people should be paid different depending on their labour they aren't, they get paid the same! Communism in the Muggle world caused oppression, the taking away of religion and horrendous things but our world doesn't work like that so why are they having an election after all this time when we have a fair leader?! If we have an election in this world we might get the wrong leader Hermione just like Muggles got in Germany!" Charlie seemed to know quite a bit about Muggle history but Harry was not surprised as Ron had told him Charlie had took Muggle Studies as an option at Hogwarts.

"That's just one dictator who came to power and did wrong because of democracy, but he only won because of propaganda and violent persuasion!"

"And what if one the candidates is under control of that Death Eater hey?! He'll be able to use propaganda to pull in a team, place them all under the Imperius curse and make them work to get the whole country to be a supporter of that party! The Magical world is much more dangerous than the Muggles'! Hitler's fascist rule and holocaust of the Jews won't be half as bad as what might happen here! It might even be worse than when we were under the rule of You Know Who and the Death Eaters!"

"The possibility of that happening is small Charlie and you should know it if you are so clever but you don't always say what's in your mind just your heart!"

Charlie half-laughed here, "Hermione, are you mental?! Kingsley's evidently the best Minister we could ever get!"

"I didn't say he wasn't did I?!" she half-screamed back.  
"Maybe you didn't but you agreed with an election that might throw him out of power leaving us to the dominion of someone else we don't agree with!"

"I did not! I was just standing up for democracy! And, yes, Kingsley is the best Minister we could ever have which means that once he wins the election it proves to all the doubters that he is right for the job! And anyway there is nothing you can do!"

"So, what?! You're gonna go and vote are you?! Because I'm not!"

"And what if Kingsley loses by one vote! That will be you're fault! If you want him to be Minister for Magic then support him! Or even your brother for that matter! Or have you all forgotten Percy was mentioned!"

Charlie who had been ready to retort didn't but instead, stayed silent.

"That's what I thought? Yes, maybe he ditched your family for a few years, came back, acted the hero and jetted off again but don't you understand why he did that?! Don't be mad at him because he left again! He left in grief! In mourning of your brother! Your dead brother! Fred! Percy watched him die, Charlie! That is why he left! Remember that!"

Charlie's eyes seemed to glisten with what looked tears and he stared at the ground as Hermione spoke about Percy. Harry also felt an upsurge of sudden emotion drive through him as Hermione ranted about Ron's elder brother. Harry had a clear memory of what had happened straight after the war, Percy after mourning Fred's dead body for a good few hours had decided to leave without real notice. When the majority of the Weasleys were not looking Percy attempted to slip away quietly but Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione had caught him going. He had told him how he could not bare to be with his family anymore especially after the years of arguing that he thought he could not properly apologise for. He also blamed himself for Fred's death and thought himself incapable of living with George as he was Fred's twin, and his appearance unsettled Percy. He was unable to manage the guilt and mourning so he had left. Ever since Charlie had not been able to understand fully why Percy had fled, it seemed rather selfish to Charlie who had began to slightly hate his younger brother ever since the day of the war. It seemed the rumour about his possible return to the Magical world and the Ministry, as Minister as well, seemed to bring back Charlie's bitter feelings towards his brother. But, Hermione's angered words seemed to of made Charlie think it back over.

"Hermione, I'm sorry I shouted. I didn't mean to, it's just when I realised what was going on, at first I just exploded without thinking it all through. I'm sure you understand my opinion?" Charlie more or less whispered to Hermione very quietly.

"Yes, yes I do. And I think what you said made some sense. I think that really we were more or less both right here. I'm sorry for going on about Percy." Hermione apologised sincerely.

"No, no its fine. It's took me over a month to realise this but…I understand why he left. All this time you lot tried to tell me what was right but I ignored you and I'm sorry for that because you were right after all."

But before Hermione or any of the others could say another word Mr Weasley's interrupted them as he announced loudly, "Okay everybody, time for dinner!"

The five of them then pulled their chairs nearer to a seat at the table where Bill, Fleur, George and Mrs Weasley were seated. But Harry, though he was looking upon them wasn't really concentrating on having his dinner. He was thinking of the absent Weasley brother, Percy, and what on earth was going on behind closed doors of both of the Ministries. It seemed the two Ministries seemed to be doing the correct thing at one time but not really too much at all. The British Ministry was working towards making a stable government but possibly getting rid of Kingsley using an election, both of which Harry thought were bad ideas. Also, the Australian version were doing their best to track down Hermione's mum and dad along with the British Ministry but the pair of them were lacking in the fact they were unable to make any progress in finding the mysterious, unnamed Death Eater. Both of these were now causing Harry mental pain within his head as thoughts and fears flied around his mind. Could Hermione's parents actually be dead? Will Kingsley be replaced? Who would take over? What would happen to the Magical world if the wrong person takes over? What if they track down the Death Eater when it's too late? What if he starts to kill people? These thoughts whizzed around Harry's head throughout the rest of the evening and he was unable to sleep that night.

_I thought that the dark times were over? _Harry asked himself.

They are, he replied.

_Then why is a murderer on the loose and my friend's parents possibly dead._

That doesn't mean that the dark times are back.

_And what if they are?_

Do not think that. Something good will come soon. It's got to.

_I've don't think anything will._

The next morning, Harry was proven wrong.


	7. Harry The Godfather

Harry stayed up the majority of the night thinking through his mind the things going on around him and he also, in an attempt to distract himself, rifled through his horde of newspaper cuttings and photographs. An addition to the photograph album Hagrid had given him six years previously, Harry had placed in an image of Remus, which he was staring at avidly, remembering the memorable moments he had shared with the werewolf. Out of all the people who had been close to Harry before they died, Remus was one that Harry had missed a lot more (except James, Lily and Sirius of course). Harry had been thinking about the time Lupin had saved him from the Dementors on the Hogwarts Express, when he had given Harry chocolate along with other happy memories like when Harry found out Remus had got married to Tonks or that she was pregnant. Then Harry's nice thoughts were dirtied by the saddening memories of things like his heated argument with Lupin at Grimmauld Place or when he had seen his dead body in the Great Hall. Memories like this made Harry feel upset, he preferred to think of his old Defence Against the Dark Arts professor as a happy, brave man not an angry or even deceased one. But the memory that stuck in Harry's head the whole time was of when he was able to talk to Lupin's spirit through the Resurrection Stone when Harry was walking to his death. He had looked healthy and young then with a broad smile on his face, a lasting image of Remus Lupin that was wonderful to remember. The man that was ashamed of his own affliction so much that he did not feel he deserved the child he made because it might be the same as him. A werewolf. _That poor kid, _Harry thought. He felt extremely sorry for Teddy Lupin, Remus and Tonks' very young baby son which was now an orphan, its two courageous loving parents who died fighting but for Harry. Which made Harry feel slightly responsible and even more sorry for Lupin's son as his parents had died for someone that was perfectly alright and sitting in an orange quilted bed. Harry, for some reason had always wanted to go and see Teddy as he was his godfather but never had the chance. According to Mr Weasley, Teddy was unable to be catered for by his grandmother Andromeda Tonks, as she was in St Mungo's Hospital and would not be able to look after him for a while so he now rested in a care home. As Harry thought this over, he decided to, a bit out of boredom and a bit out of curio, to read the short article concerning Teddy and Andromeda which he had torn out of the Daily Prophet that he had received a day after the battle. He quickly rifled through his stack of dusty newspapers upon his lap quietly as Ron was still snoring, asleep. Then, Harry found the newspaper he was looking for and took it and unfurled it take a glance at the picture heading it, within it was Andromeda and Ted Tonks along with Tonks herself who was arm in arm with Lupin. Beside this image was that of the baby, Teddy. The headline read; _'TONKS FAMILY TORN APART BY WAR'. _Harry read on;

_'Before the second wizarding war took place this time last year the Tonks wizarding family was happy and living in peaceful harmony. Order of the Phoenix member and former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin became an addition to the Tonks family when he married only daughter Nymphadora at a private, secret wedding. Later on, Nymphadora, also a member of the Order of the Phoenix fell pregnant and later gave birth to a young boy named Teddy. But as this occurred, Ted Tonks, the father of Nymphadora, was a Muggle-born so ran away and went onto the run with a couple of goblins and a Muggle born Hogwarts student. Sadly, Ted was found and murdered by the Death Eaters which meant his wife became widowed and left alone to look after Teddy as on the day of the Battle of Hogwarts, Nymphadora followed her husband to the school. But, during battle the married couple were killed and Andromeda, Ted's widowed wife who was the sister of prolific Death Eater and lieutenant of Voldemort – Bellatrix Lestrange, was located after he house's defences were lifted she was ambushed by a gang of Death Eaters, left for dead. Luckily, Teddy was unharmed and his grandmother survived and now is hanging on in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Her grandson now resides with many other orphaned and abandoned children in the OACCH (commonly pronounced as 'oach'), which is an acronym for the Orphaned and Abandoned Children's Care Home. Teddy will live there under good care until Andromeda is fit and well enough to look after him. But as numbers grow in the care home, the staff are urging families or close friends of the parents to come forward and look after the children. According to rumours that are floating around Harry Potter seems to have some sort of connection to Teddy Lupin but we are unsure what bond he has but the question is, could the famous Harry Potter look after the son of his former professor? Nobody knows.'_

For the first time after reading this article Harry felt a proper connection to some of its last words that were questioning his own connection to little Teddy Lupin. They knew that Harry had a bond with him of some sort, which of course was being Teddy's godfather but they did not know that. A lot of things had happened since the end of the war and since this article had been released to the public which meant that whenever he read through this article the idea of caring for Teddy never came to him. He understood that it was the media's duty to obsessively mention Harry for him being such an icon now, a figure of heroism, even when the life of a young child was involved Harry had to be reigned in so that readers would be pulled in. Because of this the thought of the Weasley family taking in Teddy till Andromeda was well enough to look after him never occurred to him. After all that had happened, that was happening, the thought of something that may bring some sort of happiness to the family might be a good thing. The previous night Harry had been depressingly thinking of the bad things that could possibly happen soon when something that contained happiness had lay in front of him for nearly two months. Teddy Lupin. Harry was his godfather and today he was going to ask the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione whether they would take in his godson.

That morning at breakfast all of the Weasleys and Hermione, except Ginny, were gathered in the kitchen either eating piles of buttered toast or bowls of porridge. Harry and Ginny were temporarily absent because Harry had chosen to tell Ginny all about his proposition to her mum and dad about Teddy. They were discussing this whilst in the living room.

"Wow, Harry. That's great. You want to foster Teddy!" Ginny exclaimed when Harry finishing telling her.

"I know, I know." Harry was smiling as he said this.

"But why now? He's been stuck in that place for nearly two months. Why now?"  
"Well, for the last two months I've been busy with finding Hermione's parents, Charlie's trial and then last night the election…all of it whizzing around my head and I kept thinking why is everything going wrong? We need something to bring us out of the darkness, the misery and get some happiness into our lives. I think this is what we need. Teddy."

"Well, I think that's just brilliant. You're his godfather and you're taking him on behalf of his sick grandmother and it's to look after him and give us all something to be positive about."

"Do you think your mum and dad will go for this?"  
"Yeah, yeah. Of course they will. Why would they not, hey?"

"True."

"What're you two doing in here? Come on, breakfast's waiting." Mr Weasley had entered the living room, an awkward expression on his face which made him look like he thought he ought not to be in there.

"We were, err, just talking." Harry said quickly.

"Okay, well hurry, food's going cold."

Harry and Ginny took a quick look at each other before following Mr Weasley into the kitchen. Mr Weasley and Ginny sat themselves down but Harry remained stood up.

"Why won't you sit down Harry?" Mrs Weasley simpered.

"I've got something to say, that's why."

"What's up mate?" Ron interjected.

"Everybody, I'd like to tell you something," Harry took a deep breath before continuing, "I'd like to temporarily foster Teddy Lupin."

Mrs Weasley immediately slopped her glass of water down her front, Ron's eyes widened, Mr Weasley choked a little on a scrap of toast, Bill tried to place his hand on the table but missed, Fleur look bewildered, George put on a face of curio whereas Hermione grinned.

"Its been nearly two months since the end of the war and since then its been constant hectic stuff going on and now that I've had a chance to reflect upon the possible bad things I took a step back and looked back at the happier times. And it finally clicked. A way to help people out of the dark times, us, Andromeda Tonks, the care home and Teddy. By taking him in we help out the care home, we get to nurture a helpless orphan helping out his sick grandmother, it'll give us all the morale booster we need. This is my godson I'm talking about and I want to foster him!"

"Yes, yes, yes Harry! I agree! This is fantastic!" Mr Weasley erupted in unexpected cheers of joy, the rest of the family followed suit, "Right, that's it! Out with the bad! In with the good! I'm going to get on this straightaway Harry! I'm going to send an owl to the care home and apply for fostering! We're sure to get him! Andromeda will give us permission and anyway, we're sort of related and your godfather!"

Ron and Hermione were closest to Harry as the Weasleys exchanged hugs, kisses and laughter together as they found sudden happiness in what seemed to be troubled times for them. The decision to foster the helpless orphan that used to be Remus' and Tonks' son, Harry's godson, seemed to of lit a match to an exploding firework of joy which filled the room. Ron spoke over the hubbub; "When did you decide all this mate?"

"Just this morning actually. But I think it's been something that's been nagging me in the back of my head. I've not been able to really concentrate the past month or so with finding Hermione's mum and dad and Charlie's trial. This morning I was going through some of my newspaper cuttings and photos and I was staring at Remus for a while, thinking, and then I read the article about the Tonks and it dawned on me. I just knew I had to get Teddy out of that care home."

"Harry, what you're doing is so humble and good. I can't help but be a bit jealous." Hermione half laughed.

"Thanks, Hermione. That means a lot."

Eventually the excited tumult died down after a few minutes and Mr Weasley confronted Harry kindly again, "Harry, I'm just going to send the application for adoption to the care home. And I'd thought it'd be best that when its accepted, if you and Ron go to collect Teddy on behalf of the family."  
"Yeah, yeah…oh wait, where is the care home anyway?"  
"Ah, it is situated upon Bovisand beach, in Plymouth. You won't be able to miss it, rather large building but of course its invisible to all Muggles."  
"Thing is, Ron's not great with Disapparating is he? I don't see why I can't just go with Hermione or Ginny, they're okay with Disapparating."

"Yes, they are but Ron needs the practice Harry. He's finished school, he's over of age now and he can't Disapparate properly? That's not great Harry. This will give him a chance to do it properly. Until the day comes, he can practice until the real test occurs."

"I think that's an alright idea actually Mr Weasley," Harry had remembered the time Ron had badly and nearly fatally Splinched himself after they had escaped the Ministry of Magic, "I think going that distance will test him to his full ability. Anyway, haven't you got to be writing a letter?" Harry added in cheekily, Mr Weasley then scurried off into the living room. Harry then sat down again and reflected upon what had just happened. They were taking in his godson and along the way Ron would learn to Disapparate without nearly killing himself. To Harry, it seemed the future looked rather bright but he was never to be too confident of this outlook just in case.

Later that evening Mr Weasley had completed and send the application to foster Teddy to the care home keeping him. It only took two days after the letter was sent, for a reply to arrive at the Burrow concerning the situation. When Mr Weasley then announced that the care home had decided to let Teddy out of the care home and to be picked up by his godfather, Harry, plus Ron, in due course. Then, for fifteen days, straight Harry and Mr Weasley helped Ron to practice his Disapparating skills in the back garden until he had mastered it completely. On the first day Ron immediately lost the nails on a couple of his toes, which was minor compared to the migraine he was subjected to when he Apparated straight into the brick wall of the house. On the fifth and sixth days Ron had to suffer the sickening pain of landing upon his privates continuously and yet he appeared only yards away from his destined place. On the tenth day, he was inches away from the place he was meant to Apparating but he tripped when he reappeared and snapped the bones in his nose when he crashed onto a lump of rock. On the final day he was able to Disapparate and Apparate here and there more or less perfectly but yet the places where he landed were occasionally infested with hordes of tired, angry gnomes which bit him furiously. But as Ron was nursing his many cuts and bruises at the dining table on the fifth night a owl dropped a letter into Mr Weasley's lap which told the rest that Teddy was expected to be picked up the next day at eleven am in the main reception of the care home. And after many complaints that he wasn't ready to Apparate properly alone, Ron finally caved in and agreed to going with Harry yet again for the seventh time that week after going against his promise. Harry and Ron had decided that they would arise at half past nine the next morning and would Disapparate at quarter to eleven to Bovisand Beach. As these plans were being finalised Harry felt a surge of happiness; _I'm going to help my godson._

They were ready to go. Harry and Ron had woken that morning at half past nine sharp and immediately washed and dressed before eating their breakfast of bacon and eggs with toast. Then, as soon as the clock struck quarter to eleven, Harry and Ron were set to go. Mrs Weasley, the previous night had fished through piles of junk within the attic above Ron's room before she had procured Ginny's old carrier which she used to sit in whilst her mother and father did Side-Along-Apparition. Harry now had hold of this as well as his wand in his left hand, Ron beside him looking nervous as he took out his own wand. The pair of them slowly took their time to reach the back door which was opened for them with magic by Mr Weasley who followed them down the garden path to the gate. They exited the Burrow as Mr Weasley leaned over the brick wall to talk to them, "Are you ready to go then guys?"

"I am, yeah. I'm not so sure about Ron, here, though." Harry guffawed sarcastically.

"Shut up, Harry." Ron complained quietly.

"Sorry, mate. Are you alright?"  
"Yeah, just not looking forward to it. Just in case I get Splinched."

"Don't worry Ron. You'll be fine. You did great yesterday."

"Yeah, but Harry, that's from one side of the garden to the other. Not one town to another."

"Ron, I believe you can do this. I know you have it in you to be brave and do this. Do it for me, do it for yourself…do it for Teddy, because if you don't get your arse in gear he'll be stuck there."

Ron's face then contorted into a courageous looking expression with a deep sense of concentration, Harry however calmly turned to Mr Weasley.

"See you later Mr Weasley."

"See you later boys. Be back for dinner, Ron your mother's cooking your favourite burgers for you."

Ron seemed unable to hear this as he grasped his wand more tightly within his fist, Harry smiled weakly at Mr Weasley before rolling his own wand between his fingers.

Harry then closed his eyes firmly and concentrated upon his destination, repeating it inside his head; _The Orphaned and Abandoned Children's Care Home…_ _the Orphaned and Abandoned Children's Care Home…_Then, Harry saw through a thin gap between his eyelids blurred colours and shapes whiz by as the unpleasantness of Apparition occurred to him. He felt like he was being squeezed through a tight rubber tube, the air in his lungs was been forced out of his body as the air crushed his abdomen. Then, Harry was flung down hard onto the ground, winded, he felt warm sand beneath his hands. As Harry opened his eyes and sat up he felt oxygen return to his body, the unpleasant sensation in his stomach vanished. Harry saw that he was lay upon a large beach, its sand was a light brown and felt heavy against his touch when he picked some of it up in his palm. Harry also saw around the edge of the beach many cliffs covered in bright green moss and plants which lit up the miserably coloured sand which lay beside a sparkling, deep blue sea. Harry turned his sore head towards Ron who was now on his feet, he was checking himself for injuries but as they're were none he smiled and when his eyes met Harry's, they laughed. Ron then helped Harry onto his feet and the pair of them looked around before they spotted it; the care home. It stood tall and wide against one of the many cliff faces, built high with bright red bricks and dull grey cement, only its front showed as the rest seemed to be within the cliff. Across its face here and there were many shiny, glass windows with solid white sills, down at the floor was a wide oak double door with two golden handles. Above the door was a blazing silver plaque, upon was inscribed; _'The Orphaned and Abandoned Children's Care Home'. _Upon the left side of the door was nailed a bronze plaque which seemed to commemorate something and it was _'Rest In Peace those who have died during the second wizarding war and long live our saviour and hero the Chosen One; Harry James Potter.' _ Harry could read this plaque from where he was with Ron. They were walking at a moderate pace towards the care home as well as talking.

"Still alive then mate?" Harry remarked.

"Surprisingly, yes I am," Ron laughed in reply.

"Good to know, so are you okay with all this?"

"What, Apparition?"  
"No numpty, Teddy?"

"Yeah, yeah, its great. I mean with all that's going on that kid's like a little ray of sunshine." Ron grinned at his words.

"Nice way to put it, Ron. I agree. I think with all the possible bad things that might happen this is something that'll cheer us all up and help out people who are overwhelmed with other things. We're doing a good deed and nothing will stop us from making people happy."

"EXCELSIOSEMPRA MAXIMA!" WHAM! Ron was launched into the air with an incredible force which saw him crumple to the ground in sheer pain. Harry immediately took out his wand and held it aloft in the direction the spell had come from. "BOMBARDA!" As Harry revolved on the spot he felt himself lifted off his feet before he crashed in the cliff face beside him. As he slid down the cliff, groaning in pain he saw before him a familiar figure appear out of thin air as their Disillusionment Charm wore off. Stood tall, his wand held directly at Harry's head stood the mad Death Eater yet he looked so different. His stubble was now gone and his face was clean shaven, his sideburns were trimmed and his wild black had been tamed and cut and shaped. His fringe now hung over part of his eyes looking smooth, when he smiled his previously crooked and yellow teeth were more or less shining white with a few golden teeth here and there. He was now wearing a crisp dark blue suit with a silver striped tie and highly polished black boots. Harry could tell it was still him though as he had maintained the manic glint in his eyes but yet he looked so much younger. Harry could see beneath his black cloak, the other stolen wand hanging out his jacket pocket. The Death Eater than spoke in a calm, cold, calculating tone of voice with what seemed like a Irish accent, something Harry hadn't noticed previously;

"Good morning, Potter."

"No offence but I'd rather not return the pleasantries," Harry spat into the sand as he stood up and held up his wand, "What happened to you?"

"I'd rather not discuss clothing and cleanliness for the moment Potter, now isn't the time for it," the Death Eater said.

"What're you doing here? How did you know we were here?"  
"Ever since my departure from Australia I have been able to gain access to the British Ministry's postal service, I intercepted an owl from Arthur Weasley as it went through the legal stages of fostering. I was then able to read through his reply letter from the care home and then I knew where to be and when to see you. You see Weasley's letter mentioned the child's godfather picking him up. You." The Death Eater took a few more steps closer to Harry.

"Why did you infiltrate the postal service?"

"It was the easiest thing to do and I thought that once I was able to read letters coming from your home I could decipher where you could possibly go. People tell me the Burrow is well protected, I needed to know when you weren't being protected."

"So, here you are. Prepared to kill me I guess?" Harry tightened his grip on his wand.  
"Of course." The Death Eater did similar.

"Then, answer my question as one of my dying wishes."

"What would that be?"  
"Your name. What is it? Or won't you tell me just in case I rat you out?" Harry's voice strengthened and gained attitude here.

"Well, as you're going to die you won't be able to spread my name across the land, I'll tell you."

"But wait, what if I don't die. Still gonna tell me?" a sarcastic tone was developing in Harry's voice here.  
"I think you will die, Potter. What makes you think you can escape my wrath?" the Death Eater proclaimed cockily.

"I defeated your master many times and finally killed him. It didn't take much effort, you're much less powerful, what makes you think you've gotta chance?"

"My master did not know the things that you did, I mean the weapons that could be used against him, he didn't know of them. You survived by knowledge and luck, not power something I have."

"Yes, but luck isn't really natural its created really which makes me one of the most powerful people around because I have a lot of luck on my side."

"Luck will get you nowhere Potter. You will die on this beach and there's nothing you can possibly do."

"Then, tell me your name." Harry demanded of the mad Death Eater.

The Death Eater shook his fringe out of his eyes and twirled his wand as he stated his name, "I am Jeremiah McKinnon."

"Sorry mate, never heard of you. If you were that powerful or close to Voldemort I would know you as I knew more about Voldemort than he did. What were you to him?" Harry answered this with a malicious grin on his face.

"I was my master's personal secret assassin. I am the wizarding world's most prolific, unknown, serial killer Potter. My duty was the kill off the majority of my master's enemies."

"Really now? Give me an example of who you have killed."

"Rufus Scrimgeour." Announced Jeremiah coldly.

"Don't lie to me." Harry replied quickly.

"I'm not lying, now prepare yourself! We will duel…to the death!"


	8. The Campaign Begins

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

"STUPEFY!"  
Harry and McKinnon's spells clashed between the two duelers and as both spells issued red light, this colour sparks were flying around the bright ball of crimson that had been created, setting parts of the sand on fire. Harry was desperately trying to force his spell onto McKinnon, but the Death Eater overpowered him and his stunning spell struck Harry in the shoulder blade, pushing him down into the ground. Harry's disarming charm had also backfired and his wand flew up into the arm but he caught it as he got back up. McKinnon was grimacing evilly at Harry with a look of hunger in his mad eyes. Harry then took his chance when McKinnon wasn't looking to fire a curse at him, "Petrificus Totalus!" but the Death Eater had taken out his other wand and the spell bounced back at hit the cliff face, its light disappeared.  
"Serpensortia!" out of Jeremiah McKinnon's second wand, appeared a large, dark green serpent which thudded to the sandy ground before hissing nastily at Harry. It was poised to bite Harry but he was too quick, "Finite incantatem!" and the snake dropped to the ground again as it jumped, alight with flames. Finally the enchanted snake dissolved into a small pile of ash as McKinnon issued a roar, "CRUCIO!"  
As Harry jumped aside to avoid the curse, the extreme force of it blew apart part of the cliff face, scattering rock across the sand and Harry's back. Harry had landed onto his left hand full on and snapped his wrist cleanly in two; it took him a while to begin getting back up. Meanwhile, McKinnon was advancing towards him, both wands aloft; he was ready to complete his mission...

"EXPULSO!" Harry cleverly fired this spell straight at McKinnon's first wand which rested in his right hand, it sparked and sizzled as the wand broke into two pieces, pieces of unicorn hair hung out of the cracked ends. McKinnon's livid face contorted with even more rage than ever, he screamed his next incantation so loudly, and a seagull flew off the cliff, "REDUCTO!" Harry was just quick enough to avoid the spell but part of it did strike his left knee, some of the cartilages within it broke apart painfully. Harry had fallen to the ground screaming in dire pain, his wand held within his fist against the sand, McKinnon advanced, he jabbed his remaining weapon into Harry's temple. "I could blow your brains out if I wanted to Potter. It'd be a much slower death for you than the killing curse. But, that curse gives you the shivers doesn't it? You've seen many of your loved ones snuff it at the hand of that Unforgiveable curse, so why not give you a tea spoon of your own nightmares causing the end of your worthless life. Prepare to die Potter!" Harry closed his eyes, tears swimming in his green eyes but then, the wand against his forehead moved away quickly with a waft of air, McKinnon could be heard issuing a holler of anguish. Harry opened his eyes and saw dilapidated in bundle of limbs, McKinnon writhing in agony, Ron stood beside him with his wand held aloft looking rather brave.

"You alright mate?"

"Yeah, yeah. You? That was a nasty knock you got back there."

"I know but it doesn't matter does it? That bastard's out cold."

"THIS IS NOT OVER! AVADA KEDAVRA!" McKinnon was back up on his feet, a colossal jet of emerald light spurting out of the tip of his wand towards Ron and Harry. They divided and ducked the killing curse which instead ripped a hole into the sand, leaving upon the remains scorch marks. Ron and Harry then got up as McKinnon charged at them screaming, they reacted first and shot the same spell, the combined force was incredibly effective, "EXCELSIOSEMPRA!" they chorused. McKinnon was thrown several feet into the air and sent crashing into the mossy cliff face; he then smacked his cleaned face into the dirty sand. Ron and Harry were about the reach the seemingly unconscious Death Eater but the mad man had flicked his wand in their direction and bellowed, "CIRCULO FURAY!" Abruptly, a ring of fire appeared surrounding both Harry and Ron who took a look at each other in shock.

"Enchanted fire! Not one water charm can possibly work against it unless performed by the wand that cast the fire! And I'm definitely not going to let you go! I want you both to die upon this beach by burning!" McKinnon explained half-screaming, dancing around the newly cast, enchanted fire. Even after they had been told there was no escape Ron desperately shot water charms across the growing blaze but nothing worked.

"AGUAMENTI! AQUA ERUPTO!" he screamed, jets of water flew over the burning inferno but disappeared in a fume of grey steam.

"Ron, we can't stop it unless we have his wand!" Harry told him sternly.

"So why don't we get it then?!"

"What?!" Ron's statement befuddled Harry.

"If we get his wand we can get out of this fire!"

"But how?!"

"He didn't say anything about spells being able to penetrate the fire!"

Harry clicked quickly with Ron's idea, "Right! On the count of three, two, one…!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" the manically laughing McKinnon wasn't concentrating when the disarming spell struck him and his wand was flung out of his hand, and it came to land in Harry's waiting left hand, "AGUAMENTI MAXIMA!" and a large quantity of water gushed out of the wand tip and landed itself upon the roaring flames, they immediately died out. McKinnon's eyes grew to twice their size, his eyebrows arched over them as his face twisted horribly into an expression of grotesque anger. But as he was windless he was unable to harm them, so Harry took the chance to blast a spell his way which tripped him over and planted him face first into the damp sand. Harry felt a vicious emotion pulse through his veins urging him to hurt the mad man who had infamously killed so many for the sake of Harry's parents' killer; Voldemort. But before Harry could cast any hex, McKinnon launched himself forward upon Harry and wrestled off him his one wand before jumping back up. Harry was set to hit McKinnon with a spell but the Death Eater gave him a wicked grin before turning on his heel and disappears into the mist. Jeremiah McKinnon had escaped via Disapparition and had hold of a wand capable of dastardly things. Harry sank to the ground upon his knees and sighed heavily, Ron aggressively belted the sand with his foot spraying moist sand and he grunted.

"Effing 'ell!" Ron shouted his voice rather hoarse.

"Ron! Calm it!"

"Are you bloody mental, Harry?" Ron began his rant, "That nutter came here to murder you mate! He was one of You Know Who's closest followers who has probably slaughtered hundreds of people for no reason! Don't you dare tell me to calm it after all that!"

"And what?! Do you think I'm okay with all of this?! Of course I'm not! But we came here to help out my godson; an orphan who's grandmother was brutally attacked and is lying in pain in hospital, Ron! Now, let's pick him up, then deal with McKinnon! Yeah?" Harry began a rant of his own here before closing up his angered speech with a stamp of his feet.

"No offence, Harry, but how is a kid more important than a raving, murderous lunatic on the loose?" Ron responded furiously as the pair of them began to slowly walk towards the care home, "We should leave that kid in the safe hands of the care home where he can be looked after properly, not back at the Burrow where his life is in danger!"

"Don't you dare say that he isn't important! The life of a young child is much more valuable than the endless possibilities of what a nutcase can do!" Harry's argument seemed to of hit Ron both physically and mentally hard, his face looking bemused.

"I'm sorry, yeah, you're right," Ron had given in, an emotional tone to his voice, "Let's go and pick up Teddy and go straight home, tell my dad what's happened and get him on to searching for McKinnon. Yes?"

"Good plan, now let's make a move."

The best friends then began to amble across the remainder of Bovisand Beach, approaching the vast doorway into the care home for orphaned and abandoned children. Eventually, the boys were able to push open the heavy oak doors to reveal the reception area of the care home. The room was of a wide expanse mostly covered by a vast, polished wooden desk which was piled high with parchment, bottles of ink and buckets of quills. Against the oak walls were many doors leading to other rooms, a grand, yellowing concrete staircase stood behind the desk. Sat in a metal swivel-chair was the receptionist herself that had contacted Mr. Weasley. She was a plump, short elderly woman with a kind face and rosy cheeks. She had deep wrinkles in her aged face and she wore a pair of golden glasses on a silver chain around her long neck. When she smiled, which she did when she spotted Ron and Harry, her light blue eyes twinkled. She spoke with a soft, motherly voice;

"Good morning boys. I am guessing you are here on behalf of one Arthur Weasley to pick up Teddy Lupin?"

"Yes, that's right." Harry said.

"Which must mean you are the famous Harry Potter?"

"Yes."

"Could I have an autograph, for my grandson, he idolises you."

"Erm…okay, sure."

The receptionist seized a scrap of parchment, dipped a crooked quill into a bottle of red ink and passed both of them to Harry who quickly signed his name and left a message also, reading; _'Thank you.'_

"Now, can we do what I and my friend came here to do."

"Sorry."

"Teddy Lupin."

"Oh sorry, yes, I'll just go and collect him from his room. Please wait here." The receptionist then rose from her chair and exited the room through one of the doors on the left. Ron and Harry were left standing in silence awaiting her return. She did so five minutes later, Teddy lay within her arms in a bundle of a white blanket asleep.

"Erm, Mr. Potter, do you not have a carrier for Teddy?"

"Oh, damn!" Harry remembered that he had dropped the carrier when Jeremiah McKinnon had first attacked and that it had burnt to a crisp within the enchanted fire that had previously encircled him, "We, err, forgot it."

The receptionist sighed, "Here you go then," she had somehow procured a carrier from underneath her desk in one hand, placing it roughly onto the desk. She carefully placed Teddy inside the carrier before passing him over to Harry.

Harry was not surprised when he saw Teddy because he knew that Remus' son was alike his mother by being a Metamorphagus but as he was just a baby, Teddy was incapable of controlling his powers. His hair was short and coarse and was of a dark green consistency, his eyes were brown and his nose alike a button. Harry smiled as Ron spoke to the receptionist, "Well, we'll be going."

"Goodbye then." She replied.

Harry and Ron the turned around swiftly and exited the building quickly and without speaking they turned on their heels, wands now aloft, before Disapparating. Yet again, Harry felt like he was being forced through a thin rubber tube, breath temporarily left his lung capacity until he crashed onto the ground, Teddy swayed with the motion of the carrier upon the crook of Harry's arm. When he got to his feet along with Ron they realised that the Weasleys and Hermione were poised to take their dinner, a cheer had erupted on their arrival. Harry took Teddy up to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and laid his carrier on the corner of the table, everyone was happy until Harry's serious expression changed their mood. They fell silent as Harry cleared his throat and announced; "Everyone… me and Ron need to tell you something…"

By the evening that night Harry had informed the Weasleys and Hermione about what had happened to himself and Ron on Bovisand Beach. As soon as Mr. Weasley got word of it he immediately wrote a letter to the Ministry of Magic telling them of Jeremiah McKinnon's name and what he was. It was now tea-time and yet again the family were gathered around the two dining tables in the back garden. Mrs. Weasley, Fleur, Ginny and Hermione were absent as they were busy in the kitchen whereas the men were chatting about McKinnon.

"So, what? He said he killed hundreds of people? Hundreds of people who were enemies of You Know Who? Including Rufus Scrimgeour?" Bill rambled.

"Yes. That's exactly what he told us." Harry answered Bill's aimless questions.

"But I thought that You Know Who murdered Scrimgeour?" Charlie said.

"Evidently not," Mr. Weasley began, "This man was obviously a secret agent of Voldemort's that did his dirty work for him. But not anymore."

"Why? Because, the Ministry's on his case?" Harry spoke with a sarcastic manner.

"Well, yes, yes of course."

"How the heck can they catch a criminal when they can't even run themselves! They haven't even got a Minister for Magic! The election hasn't even begun!" Harry half-shouted, scaring away a handful of pigeons resting on the roof of the house.

"Harry, calm down, they've got Kingsley at the moment so thing's will be running quite smoothly with him on McKinnon's case." Mr. Weasley attempted to reassure him.

"Not really, no. Because he's now got that bloody election baring down on him! It's threatening his position and the unwanted stress that's gonna cause will be terrible." Harry argued.

"Probably but you know Kingsley, he's strong, he can pull through a success if he needs to."

"Yeah…"

Then suddenly, an owl interrupted their heated conversation, a light grey one with crooked wings and piercing black eyes, it was carrying a newspaper; _The Evening Prophet. _The seemingly crippled owl dropped the paper into Charlie's lap and flew straight off (at that moment the Prophet was free to its readers until they were under proper leadership). Charlie unfurled the newspaper and his expression turned from curiosity to intrigue as he read the main headline before passing it over to Harry. He saw the main headline and asked the others a question, "What day is it? Today, I mean."

"Today, erm, the thirty first of June isn't it?" Ron said.

"No, think's its July now. July the first, but isn't that the day…" Bill began.

Harry completed the sentence for him, "…that the election campaign begins? Yes." Harry then showed them the headline which read; _'THE ELECTION CAMPAIGNS BEGIN.' _ The page was split into three columns, each headed with a photograph of someone. Everyone gasped in shock as Harry returned the paper to his own eyes. He read the opening paragraph of the article before the main body of it;

_"'Earlier today, the office of the Minister for Magic, which is being temporarily occupied by Kingsley Shacklebolt, was filled with various standing members of the Wizengamot and high members of the Auror Office. The office was open today for people wanting to become candidates for the upcoming Minister for Magic election. Below you can see the three people that entered with the title of their political party and motto, their campaigns will begin tomorrow morning doing whatever they please. The candidates are as follows;'"_

"Do you want me to carry on?" Harry asked them.

"Yes."

Harry directed his eyes upon the first out of three columns, the image that headed it shocked him, it was a moving photograph of none other than former Minister for Magic; Cornelius Fudge. He still seemed a portly man but his hair was much wispier, there were more bags under his eyes than usual and his striped suit and bowler hat were absent. Harry began; "'_Cornelius Oswald Fudge…'"_

Ron choked on the sip of Firewhisky he had taken, "Excuse me?! Fudge?! I thought he was dead!"

"Obviously, not." Hermione's voice had drifted into the garden, the girls seemed to of been called outside to listen to the article.

"Anyway," Harry said. He then carried on;

_"'Cornelius Oswald Fudge, the former Minister for Magic, entered his previous office earlier today to meet an element of unexpected shock. Fudge, as we know supposedly resigned from his post two years when he was shortly replaced by the late Rufus Scrimgeour. Fudge was placed into the job during the end of the first wizarding war when the parents of Harry James Potter were murdered by You Know Who (James and Lily). People expected Albus Dumbledore, late headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, to take the job but he did not, Fudge did. Fudge has not stated his reasons properly for why he wants to return to the political fray but many say he is not expected to get many votes in the election. This being because of the reasons of his departure, that being that he was adamant that You Know Who had not returned after Harry Potter had confronted him amidst the Triwizard Tournament. When Fudge was proven wrong he hurriedly resigned from his job. Fudge returned to Ministry on time yesterday for the meeting where he informed the Wizengamot and the Aurors of his political party and motto. Here is his party's fact file;_

_The Wizards' Independent Party (The WIP)._

_Leader: Cornelius Oswald Fudge. Former Minister for Magic of Britain._

_Formed: Wednesday 1st July 1998, 09.46pm._

_Objective: To get wizards out of hiding and to make them just as equal or even above the Muggles._

_Main policy: To close Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and make it into a memorial site before opening a new school for select students.'"_

Harry, now took a breath of rest from reading before carrying on with the second column, this one was headed with an image of none other than Kingsley Shacklebolt himself. Harry read on;

_"'Kingsley Shacklebolt, the current temporary Minister for Magic, was once a member of the legendary Order of the Phoenix and he bravely battled within the very recent Battle of Hogwarts on May the second. Shacklebolt was once a prolific Auror within the office at the Ministry before becoming head of his previous colleagues. Shacklebolt has always been admired by many of the younger generation of Aurors because of his long list of captures of the wizards trained in the Dark Arts (alike the late, Alastor Moody). It did take time for him to come to full strength and gain his rightful role at the top of the Auror office but his place was well deserved and he did a fantastic job. Then, his protection of the Muggle Prime Minister gained even more respect but also controversy especially when the Death Eaters and You Know Who came to power. But, of course his position as one of the higher members of the Resistance in the past year was greatly appreciated and rewarded with the temporary job as being Minister. He also visited his own office to inform the council about his own party and their morals along with Fudge and the other candidate, but here is his fact file;_

_The Magical Equality Party (The ME Party)._

_Leader: Kingsley Shacklebolt. Former Head of the Auror Office._

_Formed: Wednesday 6th May 1998, 10.27am._

_Objective: To get wizards and Muggles to live in harmony as equals in civilisation._

Main policy: To reform the Ministry of Magic and reinstate Hogwarts School of witchcraft and Wizardry.'"

Harry now prepared himself to read out the last column which make made him splutter on a drink of Butterbeer, which slopped across his front. The image that headed the third and final column was Ron's elder brother and previous sworn enemy; Percy.

_"'Percival Weasley, as you know was rumoured to be re-entering the Wizarding World when the election was announced in the Evening Prophet. He has been recently missing as he left his family in grieve for his younger brother, Fred Weasley (twin of one eared George). Unexpectedly, Weasley walked into the office of his former employer with a serious face and handed over the details of his own political party. Weasley has worked within the Ministry of Magic previously as a sort of personal assistant to one time Minister Fudge. His roles including being the court scribe but apart from that he became a reliable, useful hard worker in the Ministry that achieved success and was praised by his superiors. Weasley was never considered to be of leader qualities as he was always under orders of his boss and never got to show what he could do. But, eye witnesses from the Battle of Hogwarts declare they saw true spirit and courage within Weasley as he battled in memory of his recently deceased brother. Weasley was the last to enter the office yesterday with his documents about his newly created party and motto, and here is the main details in his fact file;_

_The Free Right to an Equal Democracy Party (The FRED Party)_

_Leader: Percival Weasley. Junior Undersecretary for the Minister._

_Formed: Wednesday 1st July 1998, 10.59am._

_Objective: To give everyone the right decide what policies are brought into the country._

_Main policy: To reform the Ministry of Magic and reinstate Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with optional classes.'"_

_All three of the candidates will begin their election campaigns across the country beginning tomorrow where they will fight for the votes of the general public. The date for the election when you can vote is; Saturday the 31st July 1998 as the board think it best to commemorate the death days of both James and Lily Potter with a new Minister for Magic who will finally get rid of the dark times and begin the good, forgetting the horrors of the second wizarding war and the Battle of Hogwarts._

_By Xenophilus Lovegood.'"_

Harry, then looked up from completing his reading of the _Evening Prophet _and looked upon the expressions of the others around him, some of the looked bemused and the others looking very interested.

"Well, isn't this going to be interesting?" Came the first comment from Hermione.

"I've got to agree there." Harry piped up.

"The question is, really, who's everyone going to vote for?" Ginny said, leaving everyone in some sort of stupor. This now brought everyone to speak their mind.

"This isn't just because it's for Fred, but I've got to say I'm going to vote for Percy, and I don't care if people say it's because he's my brother because that isn't true," George was the first to say, "Everyone here knows that I'm not Percy's biggest fan but what he's standing for I can't not vote for it."

"I think that's very nice of you George," Mrs Weasley said in her soft voice, "Now, of course, I think Kingsley is very suitable for the job but I've got to support my son here, no matter what he's done in the past. He deserves this chance to prove what he can do."

"Well, I disagree," Bill's sudden speech took the others by surprise, "Of course I've forgiven him for what he's done but I don't think he'd be able to handle the job as Minister. It's too much and Kingsley's doing a fine job. I'm sure he'll give Perce a good job alongside him."

"I agree with Bill, what 'e has said is true. Percy would do better under Kingsley." Fleur muttered.

"Well, I'm not definitely going to vote for Fudge after his last disaster and the rubbish he's coming out with," Ron began rather angrily, "To be honest, I'm stuck between Percy and Kingsley. Percy's my brother but he's mourning isn't he? And then Kingsley, he's better for the job yet he needs a rest, poor guy."

"I agree with Ron there, I'm stuck between the pair of them mainly because we're so close to them and both are so qualified to a job they've both wanted all their lives." Hermione agreed with her boyfriend.

"That's true, Percy's been banging on about how's he wanted to be Minister for Magic ever since he could talk, taking it away from his dream when he's so close isn't right. Yet, it won't do him well and Kingsley's more prepared. What about you Harry, what do you think?" Charlie turned to last person who hadn't spoken and that was Harry, who was now faced with intrigued eyes. Everyone had had a good balanced opinion on things but Harry didn't know what to say. He was so confused, "I, err, I don't know."

"Well, I think that now everyone's had their say, we can, err, get on with dinner. It's going cold so we better hurry." Mrs Weasley said before bustling off to carry on laying out the food and drink. Leaving Harry to ponder in his head what he might doand of the extremities of Fudge's new ideas that he wanted to bring with him upon his return to politics. _Kingsley or Percy? _ That was the question.


	9. Into The Village

Necromancy. A form of dark magic that involves usage of the deceased, old or new, human or animal, whatever, it is always affiliated with death. And something that involves a lot of that is murder, something the evilest of wizards and witches of the wizarding world perform. This of course means that the remaining majority of the population want them punished for their inhumane crimes but fail, as dark wizards hide in places unknown to the good of wizards. These hiding places include the virtually unknown hamlet of Necromancy Town. Within the brick walls of this aged, forgotten town rests the darkest of wizards on the run from the authorities including three people in particular. Amongst the small population were three significant figures that were being hunted by the Ministry of Magic. At that moment they were having a quiet drink in the local tavern, 'The Death Trap'. It was a diminutive, shabby place which was dimly lit with a handful of grimy, wax coated candles which floated in the tobacco filled air. Most of the windows were either boarded up or cracked in several places, their sills coated in brown dust. At the front of the tavern lay a circular bar which was painted black, wooden and heavily scratched and dented. Yet, many covered up wizards approached it and ordered a sometimes illegal, highly alcoholic drink from the overweight, badly dressed barman who had a peculiar stench of droppings about him. Placed upon the blood stained wooden floor which had a couple of missing floorboards here and there, were many small tables with stools around them. In the corner of the tavern were the three specific people, who were huddled around a circular table. In front of them stood their oddly coloured drinks in musty glasses, none of the drinks had been touched, just in case. They had been sat there for around twenty minutes and surprisingly no-one had hassled them yet, they were glad of this as they were discussing something private.

"So, what did you want to discuss that was so important that we had to talk about it in a deserted pub?" asked Draco Malfoy in an angered tone of voice.

"I found this when I went out to the market, it's the _Daily Prophet_," Gregory Goyle took out the roll of newspaper from his inside robe pocket and handing it to Draco.

"And why exactly do you want us to read this trash Gregory? You know they talk about us!" Narcissa, Draco's mother half-shouted at her son's friend.

"Mother, wait. Do not complain at Goyle, he's found us something rather intriguing." Draco said quietly.

"Let me look, Draco." He passed the newspaper to her, so she looked upon the headline that was plastered across in large, bold letters; _'WANTED: JEREMIAH MCKINNON.'_

"Am I supposed to be intrigued here, Draco?"

"Excuse me?"

"That's what I should be saying. Who on earth is this man?" Narcissa demanded of her son and Goyle.

"Well, if you just read on…" Goyle began.

"I don't have the time or patience to read a damned article!" Narcissa's raised tone caused wizards and witches in vicinity to jump, "Just tell who this McKinnon is!"

"I didn't even have to read the article," Draco started, a tone of sentimentality in his voice, "You see, father," Draco gulped here as his mother slightly flinched, "told me about him. He was one of You Know Who's closest followers back in the day, and did some of his murderous bidding for him. Not many people know of him as he was You Know Who's secret assassin, killing off some of his more personal enemies for him."

"And why exactly does Gregory here think we need to know about another Death Eater on the run? We are through with the Dark Arts, I have told you that!"

"Don't you see it mother!" Draco exclaimed banging his fist upon the table, the liquid inside the glasses wobbled, "This man could help us!"

"Help us?!" Narcissa's voice went slightly high pitched, "Why would tagging along with a dangerous ally of You Know Who be helpful at all?!"

"Of course it'd be helpful! For father!"

"Now it is my turn to say, excuse me?! What are you talking about Draco?! Your father?!" her eyes suddenly lit up with some sort of anger which didn't mean. And for some reason she seized her glass of what was supposed to be Gillywater (which is supposed to be clear but was a murky grey), and took a long sip, choking on the little bits within it.

"With McKinnon we can save my father!"

"How, Draco?" Goyle piped up amidst the heated conversation between mother and son.

"Yes, Draco, how?!"

"If he's as powerful and dangerous as he seems then maybe, he could help us break out my father?" Draco's voice slowly grew quieter.

"Oh yes, because it's that easy to break out a Death Eater from a heavily guarded prison cell in Azkaban!" she cried sarcastically.

"Mum, I know all about this man, he's capable of doing it!"  
"Yes, maybe we could break out Lucius but why would you want to rapidly inflate the price on your head Draco?"

"I don't think we could anymore than it already is. Once we get him out…"

"But Draco," his mother said more softly than beforehand, "It would mean getting the others out too."

"And what is wrong with that?"

"Are you crazy, Draco? Those men made our lives hell…"

"Yes, which is exactly why we need them," Narcissa and Goyle expressed mystified expressions at this point, "They've been made into killers, the perfect killers. With them we can carry out revenge."

"Carry out revenge, Draco?" Narcissa gasped, "How could you possibly think of such a thing?! Harry Potter saved your life!"

"But he served father on a plate to the Ministry didn't he, leaving them on our trail!" Draco argued.

"To be honest Draco, of course I'd like to take out my inner anguish with that damned Resistance but Potter told me you were alive! He helped me and he saved you!" Narcissa pleaded with her son.

"Yet, he put on a price tag on our heads and anyway you've saved his life haven't you already? He's escaped too many times! He needs to be stopped! Once and for all!" Draco's raging tone disturbed peaceful atmosphere within the tavern, several wizards shuffled in their stools away from them.

"And what is the reason you have for stopping him? Because he doesn't seem to be doing anything, Draco!"

"Wasn't it by his order that father be put away?"

"It was of general agreement, Draco!"

"So, you want nothing to do with our mission then, because the Resistance have brainwashed you into thinking that what they do is all right! Because it isn't!" Draco's voice was contracted full of passion, "Your husband, my father, is in prison because of Potter."

"No, because your father was power hungry and persuaded into becoming a Death Eater back in his school days! That decision left us to be a part of You Know Who's cult, and left your father to be imprisoned!" Narcissa argued angrily.

"Then, you've made your decision haven't you mother? You aren't going to help us are you? We shall go alone with this McKinnon, me and Goyle; we will break out my father and take out revenge upon Potter." Draco bellowed.

"Fine, on your own heads be it!"

"Come on, Goyle!" Draco jumped up immediately and knocked down his stool which clattered loudly. He then grabbed Goyle's arm (whose face was contorted in bemusement and shock) and forced him up. The pair of them twisted their way through the tables and Draco barged open the double doors leading out to the street.

As Narcissa glanced at her departing son's back she sighed a breath of relief as the stinky barman lumbered his way towards her and growled, "I'd think it be best if you left, darling. Some of my customers are getting pissed off because of you and your son. And you wouldn't want to mess with some of them."

"Yes, yes, okay, I'm going." Narcissa muttered before getting up herself and exiting the tavern.

When she walked out onto the cobbled street she saw Draco striding quickly alongside a slightly jogging Goyle.

"So, where are we going Malfoy?" Goyle asked Draco, breathing heavily.

"Don't you ever effing listen Goyle?!" Draco shouted at him, "McKinnon! We're going to find him! So, he can help my father and stop Harry Potter!"

"You wouldn't be talking about Jeremiah McKinnon would you?"

Draco and Goyle stopped dead in the middle of the street and turned around to see the person who had spoken. There was a dark figure hiding in the shadows of the brick wall which then shuffled slightly into the sunlight to reveal a lanky figure shrouded in a black travelling cloak from head to foot. A dark shadow was cast across his face from his hood.

"And what exactly would it have to do with you?" Draco replied rapidly and cockily.

"Well, if you'd like to find him, I'm your man."

"Really, and who are you exactly?"

"Depends why you need to find McKinnon."

Draco groaned, "We need his help to break out the Death Eaters from Azkaban and then take out revenge upon Harry Potter."

"Mmm, now that does sound pretty tasty," the mysterious wizard could be seen licking his lips.

"And why does it?"

"Because I'd like Potter to be dead just as much as you do, maybe even more."

"Who are you?" Draco asked with deep interest.

"The right guy to be talking to, I told you that."

"Yes, but… give me a name?!" Draco half squealed.

The mysterious cloaked figure lifted his hand to pull aside his hood, which when removed revealed a clean shaven man with white teeth, a few of them gold, his fringe of black hair lopped over his eyes, he pushed it aside. And there, stood smiling was none other than Jeremiah McKinnon himself in a flesh.

"Oh my gosh, it's you…" Draco gawped as Goyle's eyes contracted with surprise and bemusement.

"Well done kiddo. So, I am guessing you're Lucius' son? Draco?"

"Yes, yes but how did you…?"

"Know your name? How could I not? Your father banged on about you all the time."

Draco was surprised by this, "So, you're going to help us?"

"Of course I'm going to help you. I've tried to kill that brat twice since the war and he's escaped by an inch!" McKinnon shouted.

"Don't worry, we can help you out. But first we need to get the others out. But how?"

"Oh don't worry about them just yet; we need to do something to the way the world works first before we launch our full plan of action. So, listen up…" McKinnon then pulled aside the two teenagers and in detail exhorted his plan to finally finish off Harry.

"_Daily Prophet's here!"_

Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione sprinted towards the kitchen immediately as they heard Mr Weasley's voice drift through the door. That day the election campaigns were beginning and that meant everyone had become suddenly intrigued in every piece of news mentioned. Harry was the first to reach the kitchen and he was then able to grab the newspaper off of Mr Weasley. He brandished it to the others, pointing out the new headline which read; _'ELECTION DEBATES CONFIRMED'. _The others urged Harry to read the article beneath the headline, so he did;

_"'Today, the temporary Wizengamot and higher members of the Auror office announced to the media that the three standing candidates for the Minister for Magic position will have to partake a session of political debates. These debates will be publicised and be able to heard live on the Wizard Wireless so that voters can make judgement upon the things that the parties want to do if they get to power. There will be three debates focusing upon three different subjects, this is the schedule;_

_1. DEBATE TOPIC – Punishment for imprisoned Death Eaters._

_PLACE OF DEBATE – Courtroom Ten, Courtrooms, Ministry of Magic._

_IN ATTENDANCE – Ministry of Magic employees. `_

_DATE/TIME - Thursday 2nd July 1998/8pm._

_2. DEBATE TOPIC – Future of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

_PLACE OF DEBATE – The Atrium, Ministry of Magic._

_IN ATTENDANCE – Parents/guardians/students of Hogwarts._

_DATE/TIME – Thursday 9th July 1998/8pm._

_3. DEBATE TOPIC – Question/answer session with general public._

_PLACE OF DEBATE – Hogsmeade Village near Hogwarts._

_IN ATTENDANCE – Anyone._

_DATE/TIME – Thursday 23rd July 1998/10am._

_By Xenophilius Lovegood.'"_

Harry now looked up from reading the newspaper article once again; this seemed to becoming normal for him as it seemed news was becoming such a firm part of his life.

"Well, I think this is a great idea. Discussing what they want for the Wizarding World for the opinion of the general public is great. Now, usually, the best speakers are those that win the elections and are true leaders. This is actually something good coming out of something most people don't like. Elections…" Hermione said.

"I agree there, because that was the problem with the old elections back in the day, supposedly people didn't know anything about the candidates and what they would do so they always get the wrong type of Minister." Mr Weasley added.

"And its good how they've spread it out so it ends up on the day of the election." Ron murmured.

"Yeah." Harry whispered.

"Have we even got a Wizard Wireless dad?" Charlie said munching on a slice of toast.

"No, no."

"We'll have to get one then, Harry and Ron will go won't you before tomorrow won't you guys?"

"Go where exactly." Ron said confusedly.

"To the shop."

"The shop?" Harry's asked bemused.

"Not a Muggle one of course, a wizarding one. There's one down in the village that Muggles can't see. Where else do you think we get our food from? The air?"

"Well, err, no…" Harry said.

"Yeah, because we know about Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

"That's because I told you that when you were moaning last year!" Hermione huffed.

"Anyway, is it okay if you two go and pick one up from the shop?" Charlie said.

"Well, no, because I've got to de-gnome the garden again with George and Hermione tomorrow morning. And anyway I don't even know where the shop is!" Ron complained.

"Oh, it's down a Hairpin Lane and it's called 'Ye Old Shoppe.' Harry will have to go down there with Ginny then, can't let him go on his own can we?"

"Why send him at all if someone's trying to kill him?" Ron asked his brother, raising his eyebrows.

"Because the rest of us are busy tomorrow and he needs a bit of fresh air, plus it'll give him a bit of alone time…"

"But he'll be with Ginny…" Ron then nodded silently and mouthed "Ah…"

Harry punched Ron in his arm who groaned, "Thanks mate."

"No problem."

It was a warm summer's morning when Harry woke up the next day to find himself, absent minded, trying to put his left slipper on his right foot where the other slipper was already on. Then, after resolving this silly mishap he got properly changed into a thin T-shirt and jeans and was downstairs at half past seven. Nobody else was in the kitchen apart from Ginny who was perched on a stool fully dressed and sipping a cup of coffee, a bowl of cereal dregs and specks of milk settled on the side. Harry approached her smiling, she returned the favour and offered up another stool to him. She then procured the box of cereal, jug of milk and a spoon from the worktop with her wand and Harry made himself breakfast. When he had finished Ginny stared at him, twinkling her eyes before she said, "So, should we get this Wizard Wireless business out of the way then."

"If that's what you want."

"Of course, I'm not going to sit round all morning waiting for the others when we could take advantage of a beautiful summer's morning together and take a walk to a crappy shop." Ginny laughed.

"Sounds wonderful," Harry chuckled.

"Come on then lover boy, let's make a move before anyone wakes up. Better leave a message though." Harry at her words, summoned a piece of parchment and a quill and scrawled quickly, _'Gone out. Harry and Ginny.'_

"Oh, Ginny, wouldn't it help if we had money?"

"Oh god yeah, how could I forget."

"Don't worry, I'll get some Galleons. And maybe some Muggle money, we could for a walk round the village if you want?" Harry offered her.

"Now that does sound wonderful, get your cash and let's get going!"

Harry then grinned before sprinting out of the kitchen, dashing up the spindly staircase and skipping silently into his and Ron's bedroom before successfully finding his bag of Muggle and Wizarding money. He then rushed back downstairs, into the kitchen, seized Ginny's hand and the pair of them ran across the garden before jumping over the wall of the Burrow.

It then took just over an hour for the couple to reach the small little village that was nestled at the bottom of the high hills of Ottery Saint Catchpole. The small village consisted of a handful of cottages, various charity shops, several newsagents and a large café. After making their way through a winding maze of cobbled roads and many Muggle shoppers, they reached a short street which held a crooked, stained street sign saying; _'Hairpin Lane.'_

"This is it then?" Ginny said.

"Must be." Harry replied.

"Where's the shop then?"

"There it is." And as Harry pointed it out, they slowly began walking towards it. It was small looking shop that owned a thin plastic door, the windows were boarded up with damp planks of wood and the cracked sign above it was faded but the words were just about visible; _'Ye Old Shoppe.'_

"You sure this is the right shop?" Ginny murmured but before Harry could answer something happened to the little shop, the plastic door expanded, the wooden planks dissolved into the dust, the sign cleaned itself and the whole shop grew in height and width until it seemed to fill half of the street. It was now the size of a small supermarket and was of bright, friendly coloured walls and highly polished glass. Harry took a look at Ginny's stunned expression before the pair of them burst out laughing as they saw a handful of Muggles pass them, they were looking at them oddly.

"Gawd, they see a broken down shop and we see this!" Harry laughed, "Come on, let's get this wireless!"

Harry then pushed the now wide door open for Ginny to amble in before him, they then stood in the doorway of _'Ye Old Shoppe'. _It was of a wide expanse full of aisles packed of goods, beside the entrance was a whole row of check-in desks. It reminded Harry of a basic Muggle supermarket like Morrison's or Asda but he didn't have much time to ponder about the shop in his head as Ginny tugged on his arm, "Come on!"

They then wondered down into the aisles where it took them a good twenty minutes to finally locate the aisle where the Wizard Wireless' were stacked up high. Ginny picked up one that was made up of a wood with a glossy reddish finish which they decided was good enough. They then began their difficult way make to the front of the shop to the check in desks. Ginny dared Harry to race her down an almost empty aisle that was only occupied by a lone, bulky figure. She darted ahead of him but she crashed to the floor after tripping over one of the loose shoe laces. Harry who had been jogging deliberately stopped laughing immediately and sprinted down the aisle towards Ginny who was strewn across the floor, squirming in pain. The odd, unknown figure twitched slightly as Ginny groaned in pain.

"Harry!" she screamed, holding her left arm.

"Ginny!" he had now slid the rest of the way and come to rest beside her, at the mention of each other's names the mystery wizard turned his head fully and his hood slipped to his shoulders. It was Goyle!

"GOYLE?!"

"REDUCTO!" Goyle had instinctively slashed his wand in Harry's direction, dropping his basket of tins onto the floor smashing into bits, spraying food everywhere. Harry had be thrown backwards into the wall of aisle, several boxes of cereal fell off the shelves and broke apart on Harry's head scattering the contents everywhere. Goyle advanced upon Ginny who was struggling to get up with one arm. When she did Goyle's wand was held aloft over his head, pointed at Ginny and he bellowed, "CRUCIO!" Ginny was then lifted off of her feet and she began to twist and turn violently, screeching in pain.

"NO YOU DON'T GOYLE! RICTUMSEMPRA!" The spell struck Goyle squarely in the stomach, sending him sliding down the aisle, the force of the spell had also reverberated exploding boxes of porridge powder so it spread across the polished floor. Ginny dropped to the floor and Harry rose from the pile of boxes angrily before rushing towards Ginny but he was unable to properly as he felt his legs give way and he fell to the floor, cracking his glasses upon impact. He wriggled his legs madly but they did not move properly, it was work of the Jelly Legs Jinx, so Harry tried to direct his wand at them to mutter the counter curse but he was distracted by Goyle's booming voice. Through the splintered lenses of his glasses Harry saw Goyle casting shield charms on either ends of the aisles so that the shoppers and staff could not enter ("PROTEGO!"). This reminded Harry of the techniques used by McKinnon and Sappington, who had been under control of McKinnon. Was it the same with Goyle? Had McKinnon joined forces with Malfoy as Harry had predicted?

"CASUS!"

Harry came back to reality, Goyle had issued this spell at the stack of shelves nearest to Harry, and he heard it begin to creak. He turned his head quickly, the part of the aisle Goyle had hit was having itself snapped at the bottom to cause it to fall and crush Harry, who was fumbling around near him to find his wand. He saw it several inches before him, he frantically wriggled forwards, his fingers outstretched as the shelf slowly began to collapse and he would die under the weight…

"EXPLUSO!" BOOM! The wall of wooden shelves that were about to crush Harry, suddenly exploded with such force it rippled backwards knocking down the shop's stock. The wood dissolved into dust and sprayed itself upon half of the aisle, the tins of fruit also ripped open and splattered its contents on the walls, the containers clattered to the floor. Harry, now cast the counter curse on his legs whilst contorting his body into an awkward angle. He then rose from the dust to face Goyle who stared gormless at the carnage. Taking his advantage of loss of concentration, Harry shot another spell at his opponent.

"Expelliarmus!" Goyle ducked this but then Harry decided to attack tactfully, "Wingardium Leviosa!" He twisted and flicked every time he repeated the hover charm, launching the products of the remaining shelves, straight at Goyle. He was hammered to the floor with the constant rain of food before aiming his wand at the first of two trolleys that lay beside him, "Reducto!"

The trolley then flew through the air to where Ginny was slowly getting up, the trolley smacked her full on in the face and stomach sending a shower of blood onto the floor. But, before Harry had time to return to her aid, Goyle had thrown the other trolley at Harry. He avoided it by sliding on the dust covered ground, leaving it to snap to pieces on impact. Harry then slashed his wand at Goyle's legs and hollered, "DIFFINDO!"

Goyle screamed as his leg bones snapped loudly in two, he collapses to the ground writhing in pain, Harry jumped up set to curse Goyle but the latter closed his eyes and rolled over. Then, he Disapparated.

"NO! DAMN YOU GOYLE!"

The aisle then flooded with the shoppers and staff that had been previously blocked by Goyle's now non-existent shield charm, Harry ignored them, and so, he dashed to the immobile Ginny. When, Harry got to her she was lay with limbs twisted and limp. She was breathing heavily, her face had been damaged by the trolley, badly. She had a deep, long cut running from underneath her left eye to the bottom of her cheek, she had also bit her lip on impact, splitting it so blood splattered on her chin. He left arm bone stuck out oddly, a large greenish bruise was swelling.

"Ginny…" Harry muttered exasperated. She slowly opened her eyes and gave him a weak smile, "You're going to be okay. Don't worry," she blinked in agreement, "Let's make a move then." He then took hold of her hand, put his thoughts focused upon the Burrow, then with the feeling of having his abdomen crushed, he Disapparated with Ginny.

Seconds later, they made a smooth landing in the Burrow's garden to hear momentary applause. Harry released Ginny to let her roll to the ground, the clapping stopped instantly. Harry collapsed to the grass afore opening his eyes to see George, Ron and Hermione rush towards them. Harry then temporarily fainted but could hear Hermione scream. Harry then felt himself be picked up by George (thought he gap in his eyes he could see Ron pick up Ginny). Then Harry felt himself be carried into the kitchen and through to the living room, where he was placed gently onto the sofa. On the way, Harry heard the Weasleys exclaiming their shock and following the procession. Harry then reopened his eyes and saw them all crowded around, chattering away. Mr and Mrs Weasley were tending to the now unconscious Ginny, Harry sat himself but before he took breath, Ron asked him hurriedly, "What the bloody hell happened mate?!"

"Goyle!" Harry coughed back.

"What?!" some of the other chorused with Ron, Harry then told them of what had happened at 'Ye Old Shoppe' to bemusement, shock and dismay.

"So, Goyle used some of McKinnon's techniques?" Hermione asked Harry.

"Yep, the shield charm and the collapsing object. Just like Sappington as well."

"Do you think he's Imperiused?" Ron quizzed him.

"No, I think my prediction came true. Malfoy's allied with McKinnon."

"And you stand by that?" Hermione said.

"Yes, yes I do."

"Why do you think Goyle was at the shop?"

"Well, evidently they've not been allied long, both been on the run and they needed supplies.£ Ron murmured/

"Which meat we couldn't get that damned wireless so now we can't listen to the debate!" Harry exclaimed.

"Who cares about the damned wireless?! It's more important that you and Ginny are safe!" Hermione retorted.

"Doesn't matter anyway, dad found a wireless in the shed when you left." Ron added.

"There you go then!" Hermione half shouted, sarcastically.

"Great. Anyway, Ron, is your dad going to inform the Ministry?"

"Of what?"

"Malfoy and McKinnon being the best of friends!"

"Oh right, yeah."

"Anyway, just going upstairs…" Harry just saw the other two nod as he got up from the sofa before clambering up the staircase. Reason being because Ginny had been moved to her bedroom by Mr Weasley. Both him and Mrs Weasley had tried their best to repair the damage done. When Harry reached the room, he knocked softly on the door.

"Who is it?" came Ginny's voice.

"It's Harry."

"Come in." He did. He turned the door handle and wandered into Ginny's room and there she was, sat up in her dressing gown underneath the covers of her bed.

"Hello stranger," croaked Ginny.

"Hey."

"Pull up a chair." So, Harry walked over to the spindly metal chair, picked it up and carried it to next to the bed and sat down.

"You feeling any better?"

"Yeah, my face doesn't sting anymore from the dittany, "absent minded, she rubbed her left cheek where there was a dark red scar, her lip was stitched up and purplish, "oh, and mum and dad have tried to fix my arm the best they could. It's in a cast now, see." She lifted up her left arm to reveal a white cast around her previously bent arm.

"Are you having tea up here then?"

"Oh no, I'm well enough to go down. I'm not missing that debate."

"Oh yeah, the debate. Can't wait." Harry murmured sarcastically.

"Says the one who had a paddy when they forgot to get the wireless!" Ginny replied, "Oh yeah, I was talking to Hermione earlier."

"Were you now? Good for you," Harry smiled, "Well, I'm going to go and check if tea's nearly ready. I'll come up here when its time and help you down."  
"Thank you."

"No problem."

Harry then got up from the chair and pushed it slightly aside before giving Ginny one last grin and exiting the latter's room. And halfway down the stairs Harry heard Mr Weasley's voice call, "Tea's ready!"

"Oh, great." Harry laughed afore jogging up back up the stairs to return to Ginny's room.

An hour and a half later and the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione had finished their meals and desserts and were now gathered around the living room, seated and ready to listen to the debate between Fudge, Kingsley and Percy. Teddy was upstairs asleep in the cot that Mr Weasley had constructed the day Harry and Ron went to pick up the baby. The old, scratched and dusty Wizard Wireless stood with its crooked aerial upright and crackling. They waited for the moment it would come alive with the sound of voices with high anticipation. Then it happened, a clear, deep voice spoke, "Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the staff of the Ministry of Magic, welcome to Courtroom Ten and I am sure you are all looking forward to tonight with anticipation. Now, would you all like to issue a small round of applause for the three standing candidates in the election process this year to become Minister for Magic of this country!"


	10. Percy versus Fudge

"I'd now like to bring forward our three debaters for tonight; ex-Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge leader of the WIP party, Kingsley Shacklebolt the current temporary Minister for Magic and leader of the ME party and finally the former junior undersecretary for the previous Minister; Fudge himself is Percy Weasley leader of the FRED party. Now, would all members of the election process enter the docks."

Back at the Burrow they could three pairs of footsteps clamber into the docks surrounded by an array of loud clapping and cheering of different names, mostly for Kingsley and Percy.

"Now, tonight's topic for debate is that of the punishment for the Death Eaters that are currently being held within Azkaban Prison, where the three candidates will each make their views clear on how the offenders shall be punished. So, would the candidates please all individually make a short statement on what they think would be best for You Know Who's followers including the punishment and reasons for it. After this they may ask questions about each other's view and begin a free debate. Would Cornelius Fudge of the WIP party please begin, and after him Kingsley Shacklebolt of the ME party and then Percy Weasley of the FRED party?"

Harry could now hear the familiar voice of Cornelius Fudge clearing out his throat pompously before beginning his opening statement.

"The Death Eaters murdered and tortured hundreds of people probably each throughout their time as followers of the Dark Lord and of course the majority of the general public disagreed with their actions. So then, why is everyone keen on doing something just as bad as what they did? Execution. To be honest I don't think Wizard Execution is at all the best answer to punishing these people and with that the Dementor's Kiss as that is equally unethical. They should just be locked away within the four walls of Azkaban and or Nurmenguard for eternity, being punished every day for their crimes in a laborious way being useful instead of being added to the pile of the dead in our graveyards! We can use the Death Eaters for good instead of wasting their potential by killing them, which is murder, something they did and we never liked. That is all." A small smatter of applause was given out to Fudge but it was boos that took up much of the volume. Back in the Burrow, everyone was shaking their heads in shock and dismay at Fudge's outrageous comments that the Death Eaters should be treated with respect.

"Now, Mr Shacklebolt if you please…" came the voice of the unnamed moderator.

"Thank you," came Kingsley's booming voice through the wireless, "Now, I am the leader of a political party whose initials in abbreviation spell out ME, which of course means you. This party is for you which means that you are involved with what it does, which of course involves the punishment of the Death Eaters. To be honest I am not inclined really to decide what happens to them whilst incarcerated because that would be an act of selfishness and my party is about democracy. Giving the body of the country the right to make things happen that they want, so my general policy on the whole thing is that if I come to power by the time of Harry Potter's birthday, I would like a poll to be put out to decide on the fates of You Know Who's followers. I think it'd be best if the people who were subjugated to the crimes of these men decided on what should be done of them, not me, a former member of the organisation that battled closely to these people. But whatever you decide to do I am sure with all my heart that it will be the right decision because you are the future. That'll be all."

The end of this statement was greeted with a loud round of applause and some cheers and everyone in the Burrow living room nodded and smiled, occasionally clapping their hands.

"Thank you for that, now I'd like to ask Mr Weasley to make his opening statement…" the moderator asked of Percy.

"Now, unlike my competitors, I'd like to get a bit more personal and involving with everyone here today by asking you to raise your hands, but only if you or your family was affected in anyway by the Death Eaters," there was a short pause where Harry guessed the people in the court raised their hands, "And now I'd like to ask you to raise your hands if you lost someone to the Death Eaters," another short pause, "Exactly what I thought. Everyone in this room has been affected by You Know Who and nearly everyone has lost someone during the second wizarding war. And what was the reason for that? None. They just killed innocent people for no reason, leaving families torn apart by unneeded grief and in the words of out elder, an eye for an eye, that is something I agree with. The Death Eaters need to be subjected to equal punishment and leaving them to be imprisoned where they can possibly escape and make more disaster in their wake. Either the Dementor's Kiss or Wizard Execution will do for them because it is the only way we can stop them for good. This is not an act of selfishness on my behalf because of the brother I lost…it's to preserve the fantastic future awaiting everyone here. Thank you."

The round of applause heralded the end of Percy's speech and it seemed to lighten the mood a little in the Burrow sitting room where there was an array of small whoops.

"And now it is time for the free debate between the three candidates where they question each other's views and when I say its time they will make their closing statements. Now, who would like to begin?" there was a pause after the moderator spoke, before Percy said, "I will."

"Then you shall begin debating."

"Well, I'd like to question the ideas that Mr Fudge has as part of his party's policies because I disagree strongly. I really do not see the logic behind what he thinks best for the Death Eaters, I think that many others will agree with me here! It seems that you think that these mindless criminals have some sort of potential in the world to do good when obviously they cannot because they would of done during the time You Know Who was absent to redeem themselves but they didn't. When he returned their murderous side came back as well, they cannot be changed to work for good they need to be punished for what they have done to the people of this country because that is what is fair!"

"So then the murders that the Death Eaters committed were fair then?!" Fudge can suddenly involved himself within the debate now and with loud confidence, "Because that is what Wizard Execution is isn't it? Because it's obviously not accidental so it's not man slaughter, it's done with intent which essentially means its murder! We all complain about how horrific and inhumane the killings that the Death Eaters performed were and yet we want to kill them? Surely that makes us just as bad doesn't it?!"

"Not at all Fudge!" Kingsley quickly retorted, "The Death Eaters killed at least one person connected to each family in this country, all we are doing is removing them permanently with an old, basic procedure. It isn't murder, it's execution for treason and of course, not everybody is for it so then there is the alternative of the Dementor's Kiss! This is exactly why I am offering a poll for it!"

"The people want the past behind them and yet you want to drag it out so that you can look perfect? What kind of method is that?" Fudge responded half sarcastically, "Why on earth would anyone want to go through the proceedings of a poll when the Death Eaters can stay where they are! In prison! No fuss, no hassle, they're in there forever!"

"Or not, it seems what you can't get into your head of yours, Mr Fudge, is that there are four Death Eaters still out there and they could try and break out the others at any time! And if that succeeded they would come to power again and the entire Magical world apart! And you would be responsible! The threat is happening now!" Percy bellowed in a less formal tone.

"This proves that Mr Shacklebolt's idea of a poll would take up time on finding the remaining Death Eaters!" Fudge replied.

"Not exactly Mr Fudge, because you see there is more than one department in the Ministry isn't there, you should know by now, you worked here long enough didn't you? One department works on the poll, the other on finding the Death Eaters." Kingsley's response left a short spout of silence after it.

But then Fudge retorted with passion, "I could easily find the Death Eaters easily because I'd have more than one department onto it as it is an important issue, we could do this as nobody would be concentrating on a silly poll, because the Death Eaters would be locked up safely."

"And how do we not know that when you are cosy with the Death Eaters you won't succumb to them and express your evil intentions because its plainly obvious you want to overthrow the Muggle society!" Percy stated, his fist could be heard banging on the desk in front of him.

"Preposterous! How could you dare say such a thing, Mr Weasley!" Fudge hollered at his political opponent.

"I don't think you could of made it any clearer in your party's fact file could you?! You stated that you'd like to come out of hiding, become equals with the Muggles or even more. Of course I have no idea where you got such ideas from but they are something that I would not wish upon this earth!" Percy could be heard almost hissing every word of his speech.

"I was Minister for Magic for so many years and became recognised for my humanity towards the Muggles! This debate is about the Death Eater's punishment, anyway, why are we discussing my ambitions!"

"This debate concerns your ambitions, that's the whole point of it! You were in hiding for two years Fudge! How do we know what you did during that time! The alleyways recently have been rife of Dark Art scum!"

"These claims are outrageous! I would like to continue with our debate on the punishment of the Death Eaters!" Fudge bellowed so loudly the wireless at the Burrow crackled crudely.

"Go on then, apart from the fact you want them to be able to escape, what else have you got in mind for them? As they are of such potential!" Percy muttered sarcastically but thickly.

"Well, yes!"

"Explain then." Kingsley boomed.

"They could provide labour!"

"As in what?"

"Building…"

"Is that all? You haven't really thought this through have you Fudge?" Percy scoffed.

"Of course I bloody well have!"

"This is a debate isn't Cornelius? A formal, political, live debate? Why do you swear then?" Kingsley asked the former Minister to a round of raucous cheers.

"Well, if he doesn't own any dark intentions then surely he must be a coward!"

Another few laughs and clapping heralded this sarcastic comment by Percy.

"A coward? Reason being?" Cornelius quizzed Percy.

"You are afraid of the Death Eaters aren't you? You won't have them killed just in case the others kill you! It's either that or you're one of them!"

"I agree with Percy here, Fudge, are you a coward?" Kingsley demanded before an awkward pause of silence.

"Of course not, I want to come back to being Minister for Magic don't I? Even after the reasons for my departure." Fudge insisted.

"Oh yes, the denial of the return of You Know Who! I remember! As soon as you realised that the fifteen year old you had been persecuting was telling the truth! And it wasn't any teenager but the Chosen One himself! How on earth can you return to politics…oh that's right, you're the biggest liar around!" Percy laughed.

"Mocking me is seen as childish by the people, I can tell. You antics are getting you nowhere! The public humiliation is failing because I'm not scared of you!"

"Well, you should be, because I'm you're worst nightmare."

"I don't think so."

"Now, I think it's time to hold it there now candidates because we're going to introduce something we didn't expect," the moderator announced over the childish bickering, "We had arranged for public questions to be asked only at the third debate but most of the Ministry employees here present are eager to ask questions. So, one question shall be asked to each candidate. So, would Reg Cattermole of Magical Maintenance, please stand up?"

Back at the Burrow, Harry, Ron and Hermione took a quick glance at one another.

"So, Reg who is your question for?"

"It's for, Percy Weasley." Came the familiar voice of one of Ron's former fake identities via Polyjuice Potion, Reg.

"Okay go for it, and by the way the other candidates are allowed to openly discuss."

"Mr Weasley, I agree with what you want to do with the Death Eaters which is lifelong and physical punishment but I'm unsure which one you want them to have. Is it Dementor's Kiss or Wizard Execution and why?"

"To be honest I think that any of them would do the Death Eaters as it would mean getting them out of the picture permanently and there's no coming back. Death or no soul, they can't do much can they? And why? Well, isn't I think it's obvious. The son, wife and family friend of one of You Know Who's closest followers, the murderous and demented Draco Malfoy, and You Know Who's most prolific serial killer are on the loose. If the Death Eaters were arrested, like Mr Fudge's ludicrous idea, then they would be broken out and set off onto a revenge path! My ideas for punishment would render them all from doing anything!" Percy's tone of voice accelerated in speed and volume, as well as pitch.

"Yes, of course, I am the one with the ludicrous coming from the man set on murder! The man who abandoned his family in a time of dire need and thought his career was more important!" Fudge remarked crudely.

"And yet the man that employed me was you wasn't it Mr Fudge?!"

"Anyway, we have another question and this time it is for Mr Shacklebolt, now where Hamish MacFarlan?"

There was brief pause where Harry was sure the head of the Department of Magical Sports and Games had raised his hand and stood up, ready to ask his question.

"Go ahead then Mr MacFarlan."

"Well, now Mr Shacklebolt I was just a little bit curious about something. What I'm asking is, if your poll did go ahead and you had to partake in it which punishment would you decide on, the Dementor's Kiss or Wizard Execution?" spoke roughly.

"Well, obviously I came up with the idea to have the poll because I am unselfish and I am unsure of which punishment I'd go with, if I'd had the option to the poll I wouldn't take part." Kingsley stated blandly.

"Yes, yes, I understand that but if you had to choose, which one would you choose?" Hamish enforced.

"To be honest I think I would go with the Dementor's Kiss because instead of killing the Death Eaters which would seem rather inhumane I guess, I'd resort to the previous method of punishment for high security prisoners. When the Ministry was in proper working order it did used to work, and when I come to power I would make something like this always work."

There was then a small smatter of clapping, Percy was silent but Fudge scoffed loudly.

"Well, now let's crack on with the last question which is for Mr Fudge and it's from Wilkie Twycross. Wilkie?"

"I'm over here," the familiar voice of the wispy haired and emaciated Apparition teacher, drifted through the wireless at the Burrow.

"Now, what is your question for Mr Fudge?"

"Ah yes, well I was just wondering if he could properly divulge on what he would make the Death Eaters do with their 'potential'? Because nobody here understands what they could do, because if we release them to do work they could try to escape and succeed."

"Now, now, now Mr Twycross, of course they wouldn't escape because once I get back into power I will quadruple the security we've already got, combined of Dementors and wizard guards. And well, what they could do, the job possibilities are endless. Our shops and businesses are in disrepair, the owners and workers deceased or their families ripped apart, so the Death Eaters could help rebuild the economy then help out working in the places. The possibilities are endless." Fudge rambled on quickly.

"And yet again, if you've heard properly, Mr Twycross, Mr Fudge has no idea what they could do he's just afraid of killing them because as I've pointed out many times tonight, the man is a pathetic coward!" Percy screamed.

"And if you've noticed ladies and gentlemen this man is a lunatic! And he is desperate for this job to redeem himself! But he doesn't deserve it because a good Minister is one that doesn't rely on personal attacks to persuade the public!" Fudge retorted angrily.

"Okay, okay, okay, calm down now Mr Fudge, Mr Weasley!" shouted the moderator.

"I agree there sir." Kingsley added.

"So, then I think that is all that can be said tonight, and I think the public listening will agree, so I hereby end the first Ministerial debate of the 1998 election campaign. The next debate will be at the same time next week in the Atrium where the parents and students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are allowed to attend and it will be live on the wireless! But for now, good night!" the moderator announced loudly and proudly, a roar of gratitude and a round of applause greeted the end of the debate. Back in the Burrow sitting room some of the Weasleys clapped slowly and quietly, the rest smiled.

"Well, that was good wasn't it?" Hermione immediately asked Harry, who had been slightly taken aback by the ferocity of the political debate.

"Well, it was more a catfight than a formal, political debate wasn't it?" Harry replied, chuckling.

"You don't say, Percy was really tearing into Fudge wasn't he? Good on him, the guy's mental!" Ron laughed.

"He deserved it, his plans for the Death Eaters are far-fetched and ridiculous! They don't have any potential, they're just god-damn murderers!" Hermione exclaimed.

"That's about right, Hermione, and by the way, I was surprised with Kingsley! He was very quiet." Harry said placidly.

"I know, I thought he'd have something to say about Fudge's silly regime that he wants! I mean, the idea that we'd all accept having Death Eaters take our jobs and have the chance to earn money is outrageous, no-one would agree with that rubbish!" Charlie had now made his way over the trio who had been gathered at one end of the sofa.

"I think Kingsley and Percy's idea to use Dementor's Kiss or Wizard Execution is probably the best punishment they could possibly use! But I'm no too sure about going along with Kingsley's poll idea because it'd would take time and Malfoy, Goyle and McKinnon are out there, probably planning to break the rest out. So, I think I'm going to vote for…Percy. I surprise myself there." Harry stated quickly to the bemused expressions on the faces of his friends.

"Well, that's surprising, to be honest as a fan of democracy, no arguments please Charlie, but I think I'm going to vote for Kingsley. What about then Ron?" Hermione asked.

"Not to sound lazy but I can't be bothered doing a poll when we can get rid of those murderers quick and easy with my brother in charge, so I think I'm going to vote for Percy," Ron said ending with a sigh afore he murmured, "But there's still two debates and a few weeks before the day of the election so our opinions could change. I mean it doesn't take much for me to make me think my brother's a slimy git, but if he keeps his attacks on Fudge regularly, then I'll be okay with him."

"Good point Ron," Charlie chuckled, "But I think I'm going to switch my vote to Percy now, not Kingsley, because of Kingsley's policy of a poll will take too much time. But I'm sure he'll get his job back as head of the Auror office which will do him unless they create a role of deputy Minister, that'd be good."

"Yeah, but as Ron said, we could all change our minds by the next debate." Ginny had now moved over to them with a matter-of-fact expression on her face.

Another week passed, and now it was time for the second debate. During that week nothing much happened, just so de-gnoming and crying from Teddy, apart from the fact that a sighting of Malfoy, Goyle and McKinnon was reported on the Monday in the Daily Prophet. The article was bannered with the headline _'TERRIBLE TRIO SPOTTED!' _as well as mug shots of all three of the truant Death Eaters, underneath was the article reading;

_'Yesterday evening, former elite Death Eaters – Draco Malfoy (son of Lucius), Gregory Goyle (close friend of Draco) and Jeremiah McKinnon (prolific secret serial killer), were all spotted in an armed robbery of a small wizarding market. The three entered the shop, picked up the items that they wanted to buy and waited in the queue where one of their hoods slipped, they reacted instantaneously. They removed their coverings and launched an fury of Unforgiveable curses before ransacking the tills. They left with a total of one hundred and thirteen Galleons as well as leaving a total of eight people dead. The list of the unlucky innocent is below;_

_Jimmy Johnson, 34, killed by McKinnon._

_Derek Smith, 102, killed by McKinnon._

_Jacqui Taylor, 21, killed by Malfoy._

_Dave Drury, 45, killed by McKinnon._

_Craig Finn, 66, killed by Goyle._

_Peter Wicking, 29, killed by McKinnon._

_Doris Day, 80, killed by McKinnon._

_Belinda Sale, 317, killed by Goyle._

_Hopefully, these eight civilians will be the only ones to die under the rampage of the truant Death Eaters. They need to be caught soon as their antics are worrying the public into thinking they will break out the others, emphasised in the views of Ministerial candidate; Percy Weasley. Which reminds me, who are you going to vote for? Contact the Daily Prophet and share your views._

_R.I.P. Jimmy, Derek, Jacqui, Dave, Craig, Peter, Doris and Belinda._

_By Xenophilius Lovegood.'_

Also during that week the campaigns from the political parties saw banners plastered on house walls, flyers handed out with a briefed copy of the manifesto inside and some of the villagers were seen wearing rosettes of the parties' colours. WIP has acquired a steel grey with a motto of; _'Building a better future for all.' _Whereas Percy's FRED party adopted a bright orange colour with the motto; _'Leave behind the dark, welcome equality' _and Kingsley and the ME party went for a purplish colour and the motto of _'Only you can make a real difference.' _The parties were going all for it, with propaganda posters in the newspapers including a FRED one which saw Fudge as an ugly gargoyle petting a Death Eater and strangling a Hogwarts student in the other. The personal attacks seemed to be quite frequent, mainly between Percy and Fudge, George even declared he saw someone wearing a WIP rosette which read _'Gingers are always wrong.' _All the hyped up attention surrounding Percy caused Harry to be mauled by reporters in the wizarding part of the village even more than usual. He had now only been out twice since the events at the supermarket but now it was time for the second debate. Yet again the time came when the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione gathered in the sitting room to listen to the old Wizard Wireless. It was perched on top of a pile of parchment when the voice of the moderator (whose name according to Bill was Timothy Byrnstyn) came through into the room.

"Hello and welcome parents, students and professors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to the Ministry of Magic Atrium, where the second Ministerial debate of the 1998 election will take place! Hopefully we can recreate the fantastic atmosphere of the last week's eventful debate but of course this is a serious topic so no funny things candidates! Last debate there were many personal attacks which I hope will calm down today as you three all discuss the future of Hogwarts School! Just like last week we'll have time for three questions for each of the candidates from the audience but first I ask them to all to do their opening statements, clearly stating what they want to do with the school. First Mr Fudge, then Mr Weasley and finally Mr Shacklebolt. Please begin." Byrnstyn announced loudly, making the wireless in the Burrow slightly crackle (Harry assumed he was using the _Sonorus _charm).

Harry then heard Fudge clear his throat again, alike the previous week, before he gave a hearty cough and broadly exclaimed, "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the last twelve months has had its one thousand year history besmirched because of its walls being lived in and worked by dark forces; the Death Eaters. And then to finish it, a war where more than fifty people died including You Know Who and so I think it would be best to close the school and make it into a memorial for mourners afore creating a new school for select students. That is all."

Percy now took his chance to state his views, "Hogwarts has been an essential part of most British wizards and witches for the past one thousand years and there is a reason for that. Because it is the best school there could ever be, the education is of the highest standard, the teachers are highly professional and the facilities are top notch. It may have been subject to horrors that scarred many but we need Hogwarts because without where would any of us be. A memorial statue is necessary but the school needs to be open."

"I love Hogwarts," Kingsley suddenly began with a tone of deep affection, "When I was at this school as a teenager I learnt so much, experienced new things and made good friends, all of those things happen to every single pupil that goes there. Yes, innocent lives were lost there, brave young blood spilt but if we reopen the school we can remember those courageous people and help the younger generation be the best it can. Let us never forget the dead but help the future at the same time."

"Okay, thank you candidates for your opening statements, now it's time for open debate where you can all question each other's views until I announce the audience questioning time, after that we will finish up. So go ahead."

"Well I'd like to start off and here doubt both of my opponent's ideas for Hogwarts because I think they are sick." Some members of the audience could be heard booing and hissing here at Cornelius Fudge, "Over fifty people, You Know Who and Dumbledore all died at that school and instead of using their famous place of death as somewhere to remember their brilliant lives at, you want to disrespect their memories by making children go to school there. The horrors that happened in those corridors where eleven year olds will walk down, trying to learn but struggling because of the thought of what happened there."

"I have just one word to say to you Mr Fudge and that is…" Percy interrupted loudly, "RUBBISH! Why on earth would you think that the students would be scared of the memory of fellow students that died there! Because really they would be proud to go to the same school as them, that being because the wizards and witches who fought that day were the bravest people you could imagine!"

"I definitely do agree with that Mr Weasley and I would know. I was close friends with several of the wizards and witches who fought at Hogwarts and I know that other students that go to the school would be proud to walk down the corridors that legends fought in." Kingsley stated blandly and strongly.

"No, no, no…" Fudge began before launching into a quite personal, verbal attack on both Kingsley and Percy and of course both of them equally rebutted with a less personal tone of argument.

The debate between the three Ministerial candidates lasted quite a bit longer than the first debate as the moderator took a liking to tempo and vivaciousness of the argument. Fudge was adamant about his idea to close down Hogwarts and open up a new school, but when he was questioned what kind of students he would allow in, Percy attacked him saying he wouldn't let in Muggle borns which of course Fudge denied. Both Kingsley and Percy agreed it'd be best if the school was kept open so to keep the education system going but the school should be accompanied with a memorial site in the grounds. They were able to keep their cool with the public questions whereas Fudge ripped into his angrily as the questioner accused him of being prejudice against Muggle borns. The debate ended with a loud, round of applause with some booing for Fudge who kept silent throughout. Back in the Burrow's sitting room the family gave a gentle smattering of claps. Soon after Mr and Mrs Weasley told the rest that they had decided all of them should go to the last debate in Hogsmeade, but only if it was okay with Harry, he agreed though and they planned their trip. Harry was looking forward to the last debate but his only problem was, was that it had a direct view of Hogwarts. The last time he had been there, he had died and killed Lord Voldemort. Who knew what would happen next time.


	11. Returning To Hogsmeade

Two weeks had passed; it was now the day of the third and final debate, due to take place in Hogsmeade Village, directly beside Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Mr Weasley had had the stolen car he had used to get to Dover, returned to him by Damaldus Cave, who unknowingly passed over a stolen good but of course did not know this. He had also been able to get hold of another car before enchanting the pair of them so that they could contain all of the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione within them. Teddy has been taken the previous night by a staff member from the care-home to look after him whilst the family went out, none of them wanted to miss out. Mr Weasley would drive one with Mrs Weasley, Bill, Fleur and Charlie in the back whilst Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny went with George who of course was driving as well. The cars had also been cast with an Anti-Muggle charm and a speed and skill charm which would now mean they could drive twice as fast as normal cars without crashing or being seen. So, at quarter to eight sharp, they clambered into their respective vehicles and shot off without a second hesitation. As the normal journey time would take around four hours, this only took two which meant every car occupants' faces rippled with the G force caused by the abnormal speed of the cars. So, soon enough they arrived soundly and more or less safely (Ron had smacked his forehead on the dashboard when George made a sudden stop) at the entrance to the village of Hogsmeade at quarter to ten. They parked the cars in a small, suburban Muggle car park which resided in the city centre of London before Disapparating to the entrance of the magical village (they couldn't Disapparate directly into it as it was protected with enchantments repelling Muggles).

As soon as Harry stepped underneath the ivy entwined arch that stood as the entrance to Hogsmeade, the village popped up bit by bit as he entered the midst of enchantments. The village more or less looked the same as it always had done, little thatched cottages and shops dotted here and there with masses of people piling down its cobbled streets. The only difference that day was that the people were there for the debate not shopping and as far as Harry could see the village had recently been subjected to vandalism. Last time he had been here, the village had not been visible as it was under nightfall, but now that it was in clear daylight, the damage was revealed. Cottage doors had been blown off of their hinges leaving a gap into the house, windows were blacked out or boarded up with planks of wood (some ripped off), also the shop windows were in millions of little glass pieces, scattered across the street. Harry could see into some of them as he passed by with the others, and they had their merchandise burnt, money scattered everywhere and the paperwork strewn in piles nearby desks snapped in two. Harry felt sorry for the shopkeepers of these shops that had lost their businesses and some of them, their lives. None of the shops were occupied that day; all of them were empty apart from the debris which lay upon the floor. All of Harry's favourite shops and places were abandoned and vandalised in some way; Zonko's, the post office, Honeydukes. Even the Three Broomsticks' doors lay in pieces on the ground, smashed bottles in the doorway and much alcohol smeared on the walls. The only public house that existed around there was even more badly damaged. The Hog's Head, where Harry, Ron and Hermione had hid with the barman; Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother and they had gained access to Hogwarts through a secret passage. The grotesque, hanging sign lay in two stained pieces upon the cobbled floor, a smashed bottle upon it. The plaque above the door had been cracked and scratched and the windows had been mostly broken, but on one, inscribed into it was the word 'SCUM'. Harry gulped, as the lump in his throat which had appeared thickened and caused an ache in his Adam's apple. But, he didn't have much time to let his mind wander on where Aberforth was now because he and the others had arrived at the exit to Hogsmeade, the entrance to Hogwarts, where a platform lay, with three stations upon it. No-one was stood there yet, not even the moderator, but in front of it was a large crowd of people, none of them Harry recognised.

So, as the Weasleys and Hermione joined the throng of talkative people, Harry allowed his mind to temporarily wander upon the whereabouts of Aberforth Dumbledore. But this was cut short because out of the Hog's Head's entrance, which was beside the stage, came out Fudge, Percy and Kingsley followed by what Harry assumed to be the moderator; Timothy Byrnstyn. He was a youngish man probably around thirty, who had a crop of light brown hair, hazel eyes and he wore grey robes accompanied by a sash reading; 'Timothy Byrnstyn: Ministerial Debate Moderator.' Percy, Kingsley and Fudge clambered up onto the platform and took their places behind the three stations. The Byrnstyn got up and stood in the middle of them before taking out a crooked wand and jabbing it against his throat before mouthing, "Sonorus!" Then his next words were magnified so that they echoed around the street as he announced loudly, "Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the third and final Ministerial debate of the 1998 election between Cornelius Fudge of the WIP party, Percy Weasley of the FRED party and Kingsley Shacklebolt of the ME party. Today is Thursday the twenty third of July, eight days before the election. So, you have just over one week to decide who to vote for and what better to help you than an question and answer session with the men competing for the position as Minister for Magic! So, there's no opening statement, let's just kick off a question, so where is Josephine Smith?"

"Here!" Harry turned his head to his left to look past a heavily cloaked witch who was stood close to Bill, to see a middle aged, blonde woman jumping up and down, her hand raised.

"Okay then Josephine, who is your question for?"

"It's for Mr Weasley."

"Go on then."

"Well, Mr Weasley, I was just curious to why you are hell-bent on killing off the Death Eaters when there's the possibility of using them like Mr Fudge talks about?"

"Wow, Mr Fudge, it seems your ludicrous brainwashing has worked on this young woman!" Percy chuckled sarcastically, "Excuse me if I'm rude ma'am, but I've got to point out that Death Eaters cannot be employed. They are all murderous tyrants who were imprisoned for their adoration and companionship with the darkest wizard to ever live. I'm sorry but I seriously do not know how you could ever consider making any of them work at all. There is a possibility that the men on the loose could break them out of prison," several people shuddered at the thought including the heavily cloaked witch, "and then you would kick yourself because they'd be back killing here and there. The only way to possibly stop them is to have them executed or at least have their souls removed via Dementor's Kiss. It's the only way to stay safe. That is all."

"Okay, now it is time for our second question which means that Lionel Hunter can stand and ask."

"Here I am." A tall, gangly, blond haired man stood raised his arm in the middle of the crowd.

"And your question is for?"

"Mr Fudge."

"Go ahead."

"Now, Mr Fudge, you have constantly denied involvement with the Dark Arts, which includes when you disappeared for two years when no-one has any record of you. I'm curious, where were you and what did you do?

"Ah…I knew this would happen," Fudge simpered, "Why exactly do you want to know where I was anyway. I mean if it was any other person you wouldn't care but because it's me you wonder. And okay, I'll give you an answer, and that is living. What else did you expect? I tried to make a living, wandering the country, eating, sleeping and drinking as I did odd bits of work for money for my rent in a small flat. I must make it clear right now that I have never had any involvement in the Dark Arts. Believe me. That is all."

Harry guffawed sarcastically as he looked at the others where he saw Ron mouthing profanity as he shook his head, Harry also heard Bill shout "RUBBISH!" Fudge smirked as the moderator waved around his hands and shouted for quiet because the audience were shouting at Fudge, claiming he was lying. No-one had believed his claims that he had not been involved with the Dark Arts during his sabbatical from the Magical world. Eventually, Byrnstyn, was able to quiet down the mood and the audience fell silent, then he announced loudly; "Right, so, we've had two questions from audience members who applied to ask but if there's anyone out there wanting to ask a question, please raise your hand!"

Instantly, a mass of hands shot up into the air including some of the Weasleys like Mr Weasley, Charlie, Ron and finally Bill. The latter lifted his left hand so quickly and spontaneously that his fist smacked into the face of the hooded witch. She shrieked loudly as her hood came down and she span around her head in agony before lifting it back up and pushing her blonde hair out of her eyes, a bruise was already rising in her temple. Everyone surrounding the group and including them span around at stared in shock at the scene where Bill had turned to apologise before he saw the woman's face. Everyone else that looked at the scene stared in stunned silence at the face of the woman who everybody recognised. Then suddenly, a man in the crowd bellowed; "IT'S NARCISSA MALFOY!" Then everything exploded.

Narcissa whipped out her wand and span around on her heels, her wand raised she send a large blast of air around her, forcing backwards the people circling her. They all fell to the floor as Narcissa screamed and the majority of the crowd began shouting at her and running towards her in rage at her connection to the Dark Arts. On the platform, Byrnstyn, Fudge, Percy and Kingsley stood stock still and watched as the crowd tightened around Narcissa. Out of the shop doors several security guards, sent from the Ministry to accompany the moderator and candidates, piled out and charged through the crowd to get to Narcissa. People were barely moving towards her but falling over one another and getting stuck, apart from the line of onlookers nearest to her at the back which included the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione.

"BOMBARDA!" Narcissa span around again and fired this charm at the shop window's which exploded in a large shower of glass shards which scattered across the heads of the audience who ducked. Harry though was one of the first to jump back up and because Narcissa was facing away from him he was able to aim a silent trip jinx at her back making her crash to the floor. Hermione now got back onto her feet and charged at Narcissa who pushed herself back up, and as she did this, Ron also returned to his own feet and took out his wand. The trio now arched their wands above their hands and walked in unison in a line towards Narcissa who twirled around and snarled like an angry dog, her wand aloft and sparking.

"Don't you dare come near me!"

"Why not Narcissa?! You were involved in the Dark Arts and worked alongside Voldemort! Your son is out there, causing deaths we need to arrest you!" Harry hollered at her.

"I will not go down on behalf of my husband's and son's ambitions! Gluforstikimondos!"

This charm spurted out of the tip of Narcissa's wand across the expanse of the street, over the top of all the audience's heads apart from the trio threatening Mrs Malfoy. Immediately, they all flopped to the ground, their limbs splayed, unable to move. They were all now stuck to the floor, as Narcissa screwed up her eyes in concentration, turned on her heel but didn't disappear.

"The guards have obviously blocked you from Disapparating! You've not got a chance of escaping!" Hermione told her angrily.

"I can try!" Narcissa screamed, "You might of saved my son but now you threaten to arrest my for crimes I haven't committed, then I will defend myself! Stupefy maxima!"

Harry pushed aside the other two as the red beam of light strayed afar and disappeared when it hit one of the shop walls. Then they got back up and individually shot their own hexes at Narcissa.

"Confringo!" Harry shouted.

"Levicorpus!" Hermione screeched.

"Expelliarmus!" Ron spat.

But, Narcissa also responded at that very same time.

"EXCELSIOSEMPRA!"

Then, all four hexes clashed in between the duellers in a large circular ball of multi-coloured light which then split into four separate rays. Each one of the four rays of light struck each dueller. Hermione got the full blast of Harry's scorching hex which struck in her in the stomach and because of the way it shot out of the slipstream it caused her to slam to the ground near Mrs Weasley whose face was glued to the floor and she was struggling madly to get up. Ron, however, had been hit Hermione's hex which caused him to be violently tugged up into the air by his ankle where he began to flail his gangly limps frantically to get down to where his wand lay upon the cobbled road beside Bill's head. Harry had been the only one of the trio that had been hit by Narcissa's throwing charm which launched him across the street to land upon a mass pile of bodies. He crashed onto the backs of many of the audience who could be heard squirming and moaning under Harry's weight and the glue which tied them to the road. Harry's wand lay several yards away from him and it was jammed between a middle aged man's waist and a teenage girl's wrist, Harry looked at it as he tried to get up without stamping on the audience too much. He tiptoed around feet and heads to try and get to his wand but then he stopped dead still but he realised Narcissa was up on her feet and had her wand held aloft directly at him. The disarming charm had struck her and send her wand flying but she'd now recovered and was ready to do damage to Harry. Also, Ron and Hermione were also back up and had their wands pointing at Narcissa's back. Hermione was nursing her stomach where the scorch mark was whereas Ron was readjusting his balance after he had fallen to the ground, blood was dripping from his forehead where he had hit it on the way down.

"Crucio!" Narcissa screeched swinging around on her heels before firing the torture curse squarely at Hermione's forehead which caused her to lift off the ground and begin to twitch violently accompanied by screams. Ron roared at the sight and ran towards his girlfriend to help her but Narcissa was too quick and aimed a trip jinx at Ron's feet causing him to fall over before she tied him up with thick ropes and gagged him. She then turned back to Harry who was about to ejaculate a new spell when Narcissa blasted him away into the wall of the Hog's Head by screaming "Stupefy!"

Harry quickly peeled himself off the cold, brick wall and dropped to the ground hastily as Narcissa shot another hex, aimed at his head, Harry now hid behind a thick pile of glued bodies as Narcissa nastily stomped her way over to him, crushing the audience under her heels. Harry took advantage when Narcissa stumbled slightly on the back of a member of the public, when he flicked his wand furiously issuing a streak of orange light as he hollered; "DIFFINDO!"

Narcissa's left leg bones snapped cleanly in two and she instantly crumpled to the floor of bodies in agonising pain which caused her to cry out.

Harry then got up and arched his wand over his head straight at Narcissa who was weakly trying to move away from her position but Harry was too quick, "Incarcerous!" And immediately, ropes like the ones which bounded Ron, wrapped themselves around Narcissa and held her tight, a black cloth stuck roughly in her mouth. Yet, her fingers were still loosely clenched around her wand handle, she then tightened her grip and her mouth seemed to be making words before a large ray of red light spurted out her wand and spread across the street. From this ray lots of smaller jets split from the main spell and ricocheted off the walls before smashing its way into the windows, and then all of sudden the shops ignited. Gigantic flames immediately erupted from the inside of the shops and blasted themselves out of the windows scattering ash, smoke and glass across the mass of people. The fires quickly spread through every floor of the shops and spat out of the doorways causing splinters and chunks of wood to fly across the street and land upon the bodies of the audience.

Harry was now lay upon three different bodies which were interlocked with each other, his wand still firmly held in his fist as he looked up at the raging infernos on either side of him. The brick, wood and glass melted and burned into smouldering cinders, discarding soot, ash, smoke and shards of the materials across the bodies of the public. Harry, through a cloud of thick, black smoke saw Narcissa release her bonds awkwardly with her wand before carefully standing herself back up. She then began to amble through the burning wreckage of the shops and cottages, dragging her broken leg behind her, advancing towards Harry who rolled over and ducked behind the large stomach of an obese man. He then pointed his wand at Narcissa who looked around for a sign of Harry, but he didn't shoot any spells yet just in case he missed and she found him. So, she steadily got closer to him,, wincing as she limped, and Harry lay patiently waiting for her to get to him so he could strike. Harry shook his fringe out of his eyes before slowly lifting his head up but at this moment Narcissa looked at him straight in the eyes. She then screams and jabs her wand in his direction, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Harry, stays still in shock as he gazes upon the fresh jet of green light spurt out of the tip of Narcissa's wand but the stream is soon manoeuvred before Harry begins to move. Harry sees behind the shifting line of light, Narcissa being roughly shoved aside to the ground by none other than Hermione. She seemed to have recovered from the blow to her stomach and now stood tall, weakly smiling at Harry. The curse from Narcissa's soon faded from the tip of her wand, the owner unconscious on the ground but the spell had already hit the Hog's Head. It seemed the killing curse had now reacted with the enchanted fire and caused it to burn even more, becoming more ferocious and spitting out sparks and dangerous amounts of gaseous smoke. A line of thin fire seeped out of a crack in the wall and caught flame on a discarded scrap of fabric. This piece of clothing was near Harry and worriedly he decided to try to stamp it out but failed. Instead, the flames caught the hem of his robes and it spread across the rest of his body. Harry was on fire!

Desperately, he dropped to the ground and began to roll over several times but instead of the flames dying down they grew in size. His wand lay some inches away from him (he had dropped it in shock earlier on when the flames caught him), and he hurriedly scrambled across the ash strewn floor to try and pick it up as the fire got worse. Harry had been sweating when the flames struck him and because of the intense heat that moisture now scorched his previously clammy skin. His body was so hot that he couldn't feel the cold breeze in the air anymore at all, just excruciatingly painful flames piercing every pore in his skin. Harry could barely feel anything now, just the white hot fire which burned his flesh viciously including his scalp and hair, he even thought it was melting his bones, turning his brain into mush. Harry's skin was slowly becoming charred, and now he couldn't move. He now just lay on the ground, squirming, dying slowly. He wanted to shout for help but he felt like his vocal chords had been ripped out from his throat. But then it all stopped.

Every flame that had once adorned Harry's body had now been extinguished, his skin was now cold and clammy covered in a thin layer of moisture. Harry had had his eyes closed tightly throughout his burning but now he opened them to see Hermione stood over him, putting her wand away in the inside of her jacket.

"Oh my gawd." She murmured thickly.

"Hermione…" Harry moaned weakly, raising a feeble hand towards her.

She immediately bent down onto the ground and clasped his hand into hers.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop it sooner. I was panicking and I couldn't remember the right spell to counter the curse. You could of died and it was my fault."

"How'd you figure that out?" Harry coughed, a lump of damp, solidified soot was regurgitated onto the ground beside him.

"I pushed her over which increased the ferocity of the curse making it spread onto the street."

"Yes, but if I hadn't of tried to put it out it…"

"Don't blame yourself for your own near death-experience."

"Anyway, is Narcissa out cold?"

"I think so. I didn't check, you were too busy burning."

"Oh yeah. How do I look?" Harry choked sarcastically.

"Bad."

"How bad?"

"Very."

Harry slowly pushed himself up so that he sat facing Hermione before looking around him. The fires that had once raged and destroyed the buildings of Hogsmeade had now died out and the audience on the street who had been stuck to the floor, now gradually got to their feet and looked around in shock, talk ensued. Harry now looked upon the cottages and shops that had been subjected to the damaged of the enchanted fires. The glass from the windows lay scattered in millions of shards across the cobbled road that was layered in thick soot, rubble and wood pieces. The walls were now black and incredibly burnt, several large holes were dotted here and there upon the face of the buildings. Harry could just see inside some of the buildings and saw what remained had now been disintegrated into piles of black dust. Narcissa lay on the ground, a trickle of blood ran from the crown of her head onto the cobbled road. Around her in a ring was a thicket of different people who jabbered away to each other, some of them poked at Narcissa's body, one of the guards tied her up with thick bonds. But Harry did not have time to carry on staring at the scene because the Weasleys had come over to him.

"HARRY!"

"Oh my gawd…"

"Bloody hell mate…"

"What happened?!"

"Are you okay?!"

The whole of the clan had begun exclaiming in shock and horror at the sight of Harry's burns and wounds that he had received when he caught fire.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I just want to go home." Harry sighed, relieved.

"Okay, don't worry my dear, we'll be out of here as soon as possible," Mrs Weasley reassured him quickly patting his arm gently but he still winced, "We just need to inform the moderator and the guards that we're going. Then we'll head straight to St Mungo's."

"No, no, no. I don't want to go there. Can't you just take me home?"

"Harry, you've been badly hurt and burnt by enchanted fire, you're lucky to be alive, I'm surprised you walking and talking." Mr Weasley said.

"Course, whatever, take me there."

"Back in minute then." Mr and Mrs Weasley then left Harry and the others to become part of the crowd to try and find the Ministry officials.

"Harry…" It was Ginny. She raised her right, uninjured arm and stroked Harry's badly damaged face tenderly. He did not feel the pain, just the softness and warmth of his beloved girl's hand.

"Hey…" Harry lifted what felt like a heavy left hand to carefully remove Ginny's hand so that he could hold it in his hand. When he did this he saw the extent of the damage done to his right hand. It was covered in dark red burns, several black marks were scattered around his wrist as well as a few deep cuts which issued blots of crimson blood, infected with particles of soot. Harry ignored this and instead looked into Ginny's eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asked kindly.

"Yeah, course. What about you?"

"Don't lie to me. You nearly just burnt to death."

"Stuff happens." Harry shrugged, a weak smile on his blackened face.

"Not that kind of stuff."

"When's there ever been a time where I've not been in some kind of trouble. And anyway, answer my question, are you okay?"

"Better now I'm not stuck to the floor." She giggled sarcastically.

"Always the comedian aren't we?"

"Of course."

"So, how'd I look?"  
"Fantastic. I love the burnt look." She joked, tightening her grip slightly on his hand.

"Thanks a lot, I like your cast." Harry laughed back as a reply.

"Now, who's the comedian?"

"Dunno, anyway, St Mungo's hey?" Harry raised his eyebrows, trying to look happy.

"Yeah. Sounds brilliant."

"Hard mattresses, thin blankets, bossy nurses, empty wards and pyjamas that give you a draft."

Both Harry and Ginny laughed quietly, simply ignoring the rest of the Weasleys milled around them, looking upon the pair in smiling silence. Suddenly, Harry groaned loudly and crumpled to the ground on his knees, his hands clamped close to his stomach. Ginny stood back in shock as she saw droplets of thick, red blood ooze through the gaps in Harry's fingers. He gingerly manoeuvred his right hand over slightly to reveal a large brown stain which seemed to be still wet. Then Harry fell back onto his heels before dropping to the ground, smacking his head onto the cold concrete, his hands fell off his stomach. He had fainted. The Weasleys, Hermione and various other people immediately rushed forward and bent down to Harry's aid. Bill was there first and he was able to lift up Harry's blood-stained shirt to reveal where he had been punctured. The cause of it being a large chunk of glass sticking out of his stomach. Bill also checked upon Harry's pulse.

"I need help! We need to get Harry to St Mungo's immediately! He's dying!"

This abrupt cry for assistance caused even more people to mill around Harry's unconscious body including the return of Mr and Mrs Weasley, Timothy Byrnstyn, Percy, Kingsley and Fudge. Away in the distance, still bound tightly and being guarded by a burly wizard, was Narcissa who slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She spotted Harry and smiled triumphantly before weakly exclaiming as loud as she could;

"That's for Lucius and Draco…" this was before she fainted again.


	12. The Longest Day

Harry woke up. It had been eight days since he had fainted due to his burns and wounds from the Hogsmeade fire and now it was time for the British wizarding public to vote for their favoured Ministerial candidate. But, it was also Harry's eighteenth birthday. Harry slowly opened his eyes to be subjected to a bright candle's light which hovered above the bed he was lay in. He carefully pushed himself up against the headboard before scrambling around on the bedside cabinet to find his glasses which when found, he jammed onto his face. Then he looked round the hospital ward to see Ginny sat beside him in a spindly, wooden seat. She immediately beamed from ear to ear when they shared eye-contact.

"Happy birthday." She murmured softly.

"What?" Harry croaked, his voice was hoarse, his throat sore. He hadn't used his vocal chords for some time now.

"It's Friday. Friday the thirty first. You're birthday and election day."

"Really? I've been out for…?"

"Eight days, yeah," she interrupted him, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, throat's aching a little but… so, how'd I look?" Harry chuckled slightly.

"Much better than the last time you we're awake."

"What happened? I just remember it all going black."

"You collapsed," she began kindly, "You'd been stabbed by some glass and you we're bleeding a lot. Dad put you onto a floating stretcher then the pair of you Disapparated to here. We all came to visit you later after the Healers sorted you out."

A short pause ensued after this statement before Harry abruptly asked Ginny, "Pass me a mirror?"

"Why?" she replied quickly.

"I want to look at my face of course."

"Are you sure? I mean, you lost a bit of hair, you've got lots of scars, burn marks…"

"I don't care."

Ginny leans over to the bedside cabinet where Harry's glasses had once lay and she opened up one of its drawers and took out a circular mirror before handing it over to Harry. He took it off her with his right hand which appeared to be heavily bandaged with white strips of cloth which was splattered slightly with dry blood. He ignored this and instead lifted the mirror to his own face and looked upon his reflection. It was burnt, cut and bruised on every available place possible which made Harry wince slightly. The most significant marks included a large black burn streaked across his throat as well as deep, crimson cut which ran from his forehead and went around his eye, right down and his cheek to his chin. The majority of his face was covered with many small, red, angry burns and a purplish, green bruise which resided above his left eye. His hair was scraggy and covered his eyes, several clumps of it were missing and where there was none there were small scars. Below this mane of jet black Harry had a thin, rough stubble which covered just some of his cuts and burns. It seemed the Healers had done all they could to remove most of the damage from the fire and all that remained were minor injuries. But then, Harry suddenly remembered the stab wound in his stomach which he had received from the stray piece of glass. He threw off the thin blankets that had covered him and rolled up his light blue pyjamas to reveal an array of plasters, now Harry could just see a deep purple scar.

"Don't worry, they got hand of some antidotes which heal the scars and burns within a week or so. Your hair will grow back to its normal length to by tomorrow," Ginny murmured, "Here."

Harry turned his head so fast his neck cricked to see Ginny holding up a coloured, moving photograph. Harry seized it, "What's this?"  
"The photo the Healers took for your medical file. It's what you looked like when we brought you in."

Harry only glanced at this horrific image before quickly handing it back to his girlfriend, the picture of his grotesque disfiguration glued to his eyes. He saw himself, topless and lay down on the hospital bed, His face was smothered in a thick layer of soot and blood, every visible part of his torso burnt black and mottled. A large, gaping hole in his stomach oozing blood constantly as the whole of his body shook violently.

"Are you okay?" Ginny asked Harry softly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He lied quickly, shaking his head to try and remove the image of his damaged self.

"Good to hear. By the way, the Healers said once you woke up you'd be free to go."

"Great. Can't wait to get back to the Burrow."

"What do you want to do for your birthday?"

"Nothing too big. Just a sit down meal with the family, that's all."

"Okay…"

"Oh, and I'll be going to vote of course." Harry told her.

"What?!" she immediately reacted, "No, no, you can't. Have you not seen yourself? You're a mess. How could you possibly work your way down to the Wizarding central of the village?"

"Carefully?" Harry murmured sarcastically.

"Harry, you need bed rest. You've been badly hurt." Ginny pleaded with Harry.

"I'm of age and I have every right to vote for who I want to lead the country I helped liberate because of Voldemort's reign." Harry stated blandly.

"Fine but if you collapse again…"  
"I won't and anyway, you'll be coming with me right?"

There was a slight pause, "Course but I can't vote. I'm still sixteen until the eleventh of August remember?"

"Oh yeah, forgot, too much going on up here you see." Harry lifted a bandaged finger in the direction of his head. Ginny nodded in understanding.

"Well, I'll go and tell the Healers you're fit enough to leave the hospital, they'll discharge you and then I'll take you home and we'll surprise everyone." Ginny ran through her plan at a pace.

"Great, thanks. Can you go now? I can't stand being in this place."  
"Okay, I'll be back in a bit. Yeah?"

"Yeah." Harry replied quietly before Ginny quickly stood up and exited the empty ward doors before taking a sharp left down the corridor.

Instead of depressing himself by taking in his view of the deserted ward, Harry turned to his bedside cabinet and saw hanging off the edge, a folded up copy of the Daily Prophet that Ginny must have been reading as it had that day's date. Harry stretched to grab it and he unfurled it before dropping it onto his lap before being attracted by the large banner headline; 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY POTTER!'. Surprised and shocked at this public exclamation was intrigued to read the article below a large coloured photo of himself much younger and laughing happily. It was again written by Xenophilius Lovegood and it read;

_'Today is Friday the thirty first of July 1998, the eighteenth birthday of Harry James Potter, son of James and Lily, and our saviour. Nearly three months ago Harry returned to Wizarding World after a year in hiding to face his nemesis amongst the dead during the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry arose from death and came back to finish off You Know Who once and for all in front of various spectators. Now, it's time to pay him back for his unselfish sacrifice to save our world and the that of Muggles from being ruled by the insane Death Eaters, by celebrating his birthday! He's now been of age for one year and is a fully accomplished, legendary wizard who will now have his birthday be a public holiday for British witches and wizards. No matter which political party takes over the Ministry of Magic, from now on today is 'Harry Potter Appreciation Day' which will see celebrations across the country by all kinds of magical person. I'd also like to add a personal message which all you reading I'm sure will agree with, and that is; get better soon Mr Potter, we miss you._

_Also, it is my duty to reinforce that today all wizards and witches of age are able to place their vote in the first annual Ministerial election which will see a new government come to power by Monday. Voting booths are located in all Wizarding towns and cities across the country, away from the Muggle eye. You can only have one vote for either the WIP, FRED or ME party lead by Mr Fudge, Weasley and Shacklebolt respectively. Anyone caught voting underage will be fined one hundred Galleons._

_Long live Harry Potter!_

_By Xenophilius Lovegood._

When Harry lifted his heavy head from the depths of the yellowed parchment, he had a large smile from ear to ear on his face as he placed the paper on the bedside cabinet again. Also, at that moment, Ginny had returned from the distant corridor, a wrinkled, female Healer just behind her.

"Harry, you're free to go."

Ginny had Disapparated to the front entrance of St Mungo's that morning to visit Harry, but now he was in tow they decided it best to go by Muggle transport back home. So, within a few short hours, Harry and Ginny arrived at Ottery Saint Catchpole's train station after getting off. They then hiked all the way back to the Burrow before entering the back garden to joyous yells of delight. The Weasleys and Hermione were there eating their lunch when Harry limped in past a rampant gnome, using a thin walking stick. He was still bandaged up and the nerves in his right leg had supposedly been damaged which meant he was unable to advance without support. Ginny then made Harry a quick sandwich which he ate whilst the others all sang 'Happy Birthday' to him. Then for the first couple of the afternoon hours they all relaxed within the house mostly the living room. It was only at two o'clock when Mr Weasley finally decided to see when the others would like to go and vote at the polling station which happened to be in a secluded part of _'Ye Old Shoppe'. _The shop had been through instant refurbishment after the battle between Harry, Ron and Hermione against Goyle, knowing it'd be used for that day.

"So, everyone, what time are we thinking of going to vote today?" Mr Weasley announced.

There was a short silence before Bill responded, "Whenever is good for everyone else. But it seems no-one is up to anything so why not half an hour?"

"How authoritative Bill ha, ha." Ron laughed.

"Well, that sounds good to me. That okay everyone?" Mr Weasley stated.

Everyone in the room agreed with the idea to head down to the shop in half an hour but then of course, one of them would not be able to place their vote as someone needed to mind Teddy. Mrs Weasley happily took up the offer and casually regarded her possible vote as useless anyway. This then brought up the conversation of who was going to vote who when they arrived at the polling station.

"Anyone actually decided who they're going to vote for yet?" Ron asked the family, breaking the temporary silence that had erupted during the past few minutes at the dining table. More or less everybody shook their heads, and said no. It seemed none of the Weasleys, Harry or Hermione had chosen. The decision it seemed would be left up to the moment they were in the box with the parchment in front of them.

"I don't think any of us are ready to make the decision. But I'm sure it'll come to me when I'm there." Charlie stated blandly.

Harry also piped up, his voice still slightly hoarse, "It doesn't matter who we vote for. As long as Fudge doesn't come to power, the Wizarding World will be back on it's feet in no time. If he does win the election, everything's going to go wrong again."

They arrived. The front of the shop looked the same as it did the last time Harry had been there but once he, the Weasleys and Hermione stepped through the thin wooden entrance, Harry saw the aftermath of the recent carnage. In the middle of the large supermarket, the aisles which had been subjected to the array of hexes had been re-erected but stood empty. There were still various cracks and scratches on the polished floor and Harry was sure he could even still see various streaks of blood. He ignored this though as it returned his continuing hatred for the missing trio of Death Eaters and his anger at the Ministry for not finding them yet. Also, his attention was brought to where the check-out desks used to be. You see they seemed to of disappeared, and in their place stood three lonely voting booths made up of spindly wood and black cloth which people walked through and back out again. In a long row in front of the booths were many chairs and stools which wizards and witches were sat on. In the Muggle World, Harry remembered going to one poll station with his aunt and uncle when he was young and there had been a couple of officials at the door behind the desks who checked peoples' voting registration cards. There was no sign of this in _Ye Olde Shoppe_. Instead, people just walked in to the shop, sat down to wait their turn, went in a booth, voted and came out again. Simple. There were enough seats for the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione to sit down on so they did so and began the wait to vote. Eventually one by one people walked in and out of the voting booths and then it came to the turn of the Weasleys. Harry was the last in line as no-one else had entered the shop, and it was his turn next after Ron, George and Fleur, the rest of the family were stood beside him waiting. Then more or less simultaneously the three of them walked out and Harry stood up immediately and his brain began to whirr with who he would vote.

He trudged forwards to the middle voting booth pulled back the black veil, walked in and closed it behind him. The others outside weren't talking and so it was deadly silent and lonely inside the thin booth which was made up of the wooden walls and a little desk which had a red box on top with a large 'X' on it, probably where the votes had to be dropped in. The voting slips were A5 sized pieces of parchment, with a pot of red ink and a grey feather quill beside it. The voting slip had the three names of the candidates and the parties they represented, with a small box for a cross to be made. It read;

_1) Kingsley Shacklebolt – The Magical Equality party (ME)_

_2) Percival Weasley – The Free Right to an Equal Democracy party (FRED)_

_3) Cornelius Fudge –The Wizards' Independent Party (WIP)_

This was when Harry began to rack his brains properly for the first time in days as he really hadn't bothered to consider who to vote today. That was mainly because he hadn't been conscious since the fire in Hogsmeade during the last election conference. Ever since he had woken up that morning he had been focused on catching up with Ginny. He knew he was coming here to today but it didn't come to him that he had to think about who to vote for. Now was the time to seriously consider who he would choose to run the wizarding part of Britain, but he was unsure apart from the fact that he knew he wouldn't be voting for Fudge. Fudge, in Harry's opinion, had probably been Imperiused by McKinnon because otherwise the ex-Minister wouldn't of run for the job because of the circumstances in which he had resigned. Plus, his objectives for the reformed Ministry didn't look exactly kosher but slightly on the Death Eater side as he wanted to build a new school for 'select' students which probably meant just pure bloods.

Now, Harry had to get rid of his thoughts about Fudge and concentrate on picking one candidate. On one hand there was Percy who wanted total political reform giving the general public to decide on what policies were put through and what weren't, also he wanted to reinstate Hogwarts. Then there was Kingsley, who also wanted to bring back Hogwarts but his objectives didn't include giving the public more freedom. Instead, one of his main aims was to get Muggles and magical folk to live together in complete harmony which was a high target yet so achievable and good for the world. Yet, going back, Percy was Ron and Ginny's brother, Mr and Mrs Weasley's son, a young man who had strived to become Minister for Magic ever since he was at Hogwarts. Now gave him the chance to achieve his life's goal but then again, he deserted his family just to fulfil his career ripping his loved ones apart plus he wasn't experienced enough. He was mentally and emotionally prepared for such a demanding job, he was too young and the things he had seen and gone through recently were horrific. Fred's death. This was against Kingsley, who had worked his way from the bottom of the Auror office and climbed through the ranks, protecting the Muggle Prime Minister and at the minute he was running the Magical World alone and doing it well. He had battled the fiercest of dark wizards that had ever lived and had first-hand experience in all of the battles in recent years against Voldemort's followers. He was very experienced and was probably the best person for the job but he had his negatives. Surely someone else should take over from him, give him a rest after half a life's worth of fighting? Plus, his party's objectives weren't as intriguing and easily achievable as Percy's.

On the whole they were equal, yet only one could be picked, there was no possibility of a union, just one stable government. But, he made a decision that would hopefully have a hand in tipping the votes their way so Fudge didn't get his hands on the job. If he did, the Magical World could possibly come under threat for a second time in twelve months. He picked up the quill to his right, dipped it into the ink pot and hovered the tip above the parchment. Then he put it down and scratched a cross into the box for the candidate he had chosen. Hopefully it would change the wizarding political world of Britain forever and for the better.

"Today has been referred to as being the Longest Day ladies and gentlemen, as the whole of the Wizarding community in Britain stays up the night, awaiting the results of the first Ministerial election in one thousand years. Earlier today every wizard and witch that is of age voted for their selected candidate out of the three and very soon now, the Ministry of Magic will of completed counting the number of votes and will release the name of the new Minister soon after. Then, as early as possible in the morning the new Minister, either Cornelius Fudge, Percy Weasley or Kingsley Shacklebolt, will start work in the refurbished Ministry. Their party's policies will take effect immediately and the possibility of the laws of the magical land changing are very definite. This time tomorrow Hogwarts may be closed down or set to be rebuilt. And the decision to hold a referendum deciding the Death Eater's fate or Fudge keeps them imprisoned, will also take place. The first of August 1998 marks the beginning of a new era in the wizarding world. But it all depends on the number of votes for the contenders. Now let us turn to our latest discussion as many listeners have send their owls with letters saying who they think the famous Harry Potter chose to be our next Minister. Now, first in the pile is…"

Harry turned down the volume on the Wizard Wireless as his name was mentioned on the station by the eccentric radio caster. Instead of listening to the discussion, Harry faced the rest of the people in the living room. In there with him, as he rested his feet on the table Mr Weasley had recently repaired, was Ginny, who was lay down, her head on his lap. Also, Ron who had his arm around Hermione and Charlie who was sat on an armchair, his legs hanging over the edge of it. Fleur couldn't be bothered staying up and she told Bill to inform her who won in the morning, the latter was in the garden having a chat with his father. George was also with them. Mrs Weasley, tired from looking after young Teddy, had also gone to bed, the baby slept with her in a cot within the master bedroom.

"Harry, who did you vote for?" Ron quizzed his friend, squeezing Hermione gently.

"I can't tell you that can I? It's not what you do." Harry replied simply.

"Oh, don't be a spoil sport mate!"

"I told you. I'm not saying. I mean, would you tell me?"

"Well…err, no."

"Then what gives you the right to ask Harry you muppet?!" Ginny had a go at him.

"I don't know, I was just…"

"You mean you're like one of them. Vultures." Harry left Ron looking bemused.

"What?!"

"I think Harry's trying to say you're being absorbed into the media. They're like vultures. Everything Harry does they gnaw away at it, ignoring the more important news." Hermione explained.

"Oh, sorry Harry." Ron apologised quickly.

Harry sighed, "It's okay."

There was a passing muteness where none of them talked, all that could be heard was the crackling of the wireless which stood on the table and the faint whisperings of the man talking from it. Then Ginny jumped up, fully alert.

"HARRY! Turn the volume up!"

"What? Why?" he exclaimed in shock.

"Just do it! Now!"

She eagerly urged him to lean forward and turn the volume back up to what it was at so they could hear the radio caster again;

"Yes, it's true, the Ministry of Magic have just released the name of the brand-new Minister for Magic who will be taking over the Ministry tomorrow morning…"

"DAD! BILL! GEORGE! Get in here!" Ron bellowed behind him, jumping to the edge of his seat. Moments later Mr Weasley, Bill and George sprinted into the room leaving the kitchen door wide open as Charlie swung his legs round and sat straight.

"Ron what's wrong?!" Mr Weasley exclaimed wildly.

"They're announcing the winner!" Ron replied. The three men who had ran into the room sat down immediately, then the whole room started to buzz in anticipation as the radio-caster carried on.

"The Ministry of Magic employees came together to collect all of the voting slips from around the country and count them. Now the results are in, and the Ministry are preparing to start reformation immediately. Until now the Ministerial candidates have stayed up to find out the results and one of them has now gone to bed knowing they are the new Minister and their political party will take charge at 9 am sharp tomorrow…"

"Just tell us who won the election!" Ron bellowed at the wireless.

"The winner of the Ministerial election and the Minister for Magic set to take office tomorrow is…Cornelius Fudge and the Wizards' Independent Party!"

The eager anticipation to discover who was to run the country had everyone in the room inflated with excitement but once Fudge's name was read out as the next Minister for Magic, there was a deadly silence. Everyone slouched back in their chairs, disappointed and angry as Harry launched a kick at the wireless on the table which crashed to floor and smashed into large chunks. The wireless crackled loudly as sparks shot out of it, crude fumes poured out of the remnants. No-one reacted to Harry's sudden act of violence as they were all in a shocked stupor at the mention of the result. All that raced through Harry's mind was how completely unbelievable the result of the election was. What on earth was going on through the minds of the British wizarding public? Why had the majority of wizards of age decided to vote for Fudge? No-one could see that he had been Imperiused, his views were so easy to recognise as that of the Death Eater's. Everyone seemed to of realised something was wrong with him, everyone suspected something, so how the hell had Fudge come to power?

"It seems Fudge, who has been the under-dog throughout the whole election campaign, has been able to win the election easily with an overwhelming majority. Fudge achieved 65% whereas Kingsley Shacklebolt came second with 23% and Percy Weasley came last with a disappointing 12%. It is a strange turn of events which sees the WIP party come to power. It is a surprising result which sees the sad closure of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the potential plans to build a new school for select students. Also, it sees a definite decision on the future of the Death Eaters who are now going to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives, doing laborious work to help the wizarding community…"

Mr Weasley had repaired the wireless and put it back on the table, it continued it's informing of the current situation.

"I don't believe this is happening. Everything's going to go wrong again." Harry muttered.

Ginny took hold of his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Don't worry, everything's going to be fine.


	13. Unscheduled Meetings

It was September the first, again. On this day every year, a brand-new term usually began at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but this year, things were different. The structure of the school was in disrepair, its secure enchantments missing and its walls crumbling after the damage received from the recent battle. And now that the Wizards' Independent Party had taken power in the Ministry of Magic, there were plans being made for its demolition and in its place a new school would be built for select students to be chosen by the Ministry itself. The staff were all going to be replaced as well, none of the original professors would get a job there. The whole wizarding education system for Britain was going to change, probably for the worst. And it was slowly catching on. Fudge had made recent attempts to encourage foreign Ministries to copy him. The only one that had though was Bulgaria which cancelled its current reforms for Durmstrang and returned to its normal ways. But it wasn't just the situation with Hogwarts that had changed, it was more or less every policy imaginable. The way the wizarding world worked in Britain had changed drastically and it reminded many of the persecution the Death Eaters and Voldemort handed out in the last twelve months.

The Death Eaters were currently being held both in Azkaban and Nurmenguard just like they had done as Fudge had not been able to pass a law, the only one he'd failed at passing with the Ministry, to let the offenders do labour. Instead they stayed in their cells, day after day, but security was more relaxed and prisoners were let out for short walks around the building as well as them being given privileges, much to the disgust of the general public.

The latter, it seemed, were not entirely happy with the results of the election at all. It seemed no-one agreed with any of the WIP's policies and nobody even liked Fudge as Minister, again. In the first few days after the election queries were raised by the media especially the Daily Prophet about whether the polls had been fixed or rigged in some way, possibly by the mysterious McKinnon, Malfoy and Goyle. People even began to consider the theories that Fudge was Imperiused by the Death Eaters to be true. Everyone remembered well the last few years of Fudge's reign, how bad it was. He had turned the entire country against Harry, calling him a liar, and he constantly protested that Voldemort had not returned and nothing was going to happen. He was easily proven wrong when both Harry and Dumbledore were nearly killed in combat against Voldemort himself within the Ministry's Atrium. Fudge soon resigned after it, in dire embarrassment. So why had no-one thought it suspicious that he had returned to the political fray as soon as the post for Minister of Magic came up? And that his views were somehow distorted and that everyone disagreed with them, all that the same time McKinnon was on the loose causing mayhem? No-one understood how the results had possibly gone in his favour. Surely the Ministry would of checked this abnormality? The possibility of Fudge winning was extremely unlikely so when it came through that he'd won why did they not check, double check, triple check? Something was seriously wrong. But nobody talked of it now, a month on.

After those first few raised suspicions about the results in the Daily Prophet, regular reporter Xenophilius Lovegood disappeared off the front page and none more was said on the election results. The Daily Prophet actually had its usual daily changing front cover scrapped and replaced with a standard one which smothered every copy with a black sleeve. The newspaper was even renamed to 'Ministry Latest' and no normal news such as things going on in the wizarding world were reported. Just things that had come up in the world of the Ministry of Magic. Recent court cases and serial propaganda were all that was contained with the severely controlled media. Most of the journalists had been replaced by slightly one-sided ones who gave their opinions and didn't care what people thought of it. And of course they got away within it as Fudge was now the main editor who allowed his employees to occasionally write a column on how 'amazing' and 'fantastic' their leader was.

The laws of the land had also changed dramatically. There was now a national curfew for both underage wizards and witches and those that were of age. Underage ones were not allowed to leave their residences after six in the afternoon, and those of age were not allowed out after eight. If anyone broke this law and went out they would be immediately remanded in custody with no trial until the Department of Law Enforcement decided what punishment to give them. Many had been instantly sentenced to several years' imprisonment, yet no-one understood why and why there was even a curfew at all. Those that enforced these rules roamed the streets and the villages at night times were similar to the Snatchers that used to use be around when Voldemort was in control. It seemed Fudge was copying and bringing back the persecuting laws that once existed when the Death Eaters had infiltrated the Ministry.

Also, it was apparent that any pro-Voldemort supporters were not being arrested anymore and instead they were allowed freedom of speech and there were many riots in the wizarding villages where people who stuck up for Harry were killed or maimed seriously. Instead of wannabe Death Eaters being imprisoned it seemed people that celebrated the end of Voldemort's reign or had parties supporting Harry, they were sent to court for disturbing the new peace. When really, people knew Fudge wanted to quash support for Harry and more or less raise awareness and promote Death Eaters, often using them in his propaganda which was plastered across the communities in their thousands. Large speakers were erected at the highest points around the villages, blurting out WIP chants and propaganda at full blast. Plastered all over the walls in and outside of the wizarding shops even the ones in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, were large posters all of Fudge's face and underneath it read; 'YOUR LEADER. CORNELIUS FUDGE.' If you went down the shops all you would see was Fudge's face everywhere you looked. And all you would hear in the background would be the constant droning of the speakers, bragging how good Fudge was as the country's leader.

Fudge had instantaneously reversed the recovery of the country from the back end of Voldemort's reign, and now they were stepping backwards towards the persecution all good wizards and witches had suffered previously. Many people had already been effected greatly. Some had been murdered in the sudden village riots, some had been arrested for really no reason when caught outside after curfew. Families had been ripped apart and the number of pro-Voldemort supporters were growing around the country, causing havoc and Fudge was allowing them as he gave the Death Eaters privileges. It was extremely absurd and for some reason the remaining original employees of the Ministry which hadn't been arrested or kicked out by Fudge, hadn't rebelled. But it was probably because they knew if they resisted against the WIP party they would be arrested and possibly assassinated by what people called; 'Fudge's Secret Police'. They were the same group of wizards which maintained the curfew on the streets and villages, and by now they had had time to practice their killing techniques against rebellious protestors.

It seemed, surprisingly, the only people that had not been affected really by the evil regime of Fudge's was the ones that took residence at the Burrow. The Weasleys, Harry and Hermione had ranted and raved at the outrageous outcome of the election and had gone down to the village in Ottery St Catchpole a few days later and saw the changes and quickly left. Since then, none of them had left the borders of the Burrow just in case they were spotted by any pro-Voldemort supporters or the Secret Police and linked them to Harry. It was a shock that Fudge had not tried to find Harry or send out his troops to grab him especially considering that McKinnon had a hold on him and was desperate to kill him. But maybe, now that it had been a month, that McKinnon would order Fudge to do something to harm Harry in some way or change his whole life in some subtle way which wouldn't be obvious. And Harry was correct in thinking this, as on September the first, Cornelius Fudge ordered something which would change life at the Burrow. McKinnon wouldn't get Fudge to kill Harry, because as Harry remembered rightly, Jeremiah McKinnon liked to play with his food before he ate it. He would shake Harry's life around, mess with every corner of it and try to separate him from the people he loved before stepping forward and killing him, once and for all.

"Harry, take a look at this."

Harry had just finished eating his breakfast that morning of sausages and bacon when Ginny, who had been reading the new edition of the Ministry Latest despite many of the Weasleys telling her not to, passed him the newspaper. He put down his tray and sighed disgustedly at the front cover of the paper which had Fudge's face plastered upon it. His face had changed since the first days that he had come to power, his face had filled out again and his hair thickened, a more obvious evil glint was in his dark eyes. Harry could also see that the wizard had finally got rid of his famous pinstripes and replaced them with a sharp, black suit and no hat. It was obvious that he was not the man he was had been, but Harry couldn't spare him the time of the day. Instead, with no objections from Ginny, he tore off the cover, screwed it up into a ball, dropped it on the floor, stamped and spat on it before taking out his wand and setting the parchment alight. It quickly burned into a stain of dust to the amazement of Ginny who gestured Harry into reading the newspaper. On the first page, Harry dropped the newspaper beside the pile of soot. Ginny picked it up for him and handed it back to him.

"I know…" she muttered.

The reason he had dropped the paper was because of the large image which was emblazoned on the first page and it happened to be a moving picture of his own face. The same one that had been used when he was on the run for the Undesirable Number One posters. Across the top of the image, the headline read; 'MINISTER TO "DEAL" WITH POTTER'.

Harry turned to face Ginny and he gave her a confused expression which she returned, shrugging her shoulders; "Read it."

Harry looked down at the article and began to read;

_'It has been revealed today by the Ministry of Magic that our Minister; Cornelius Fudge, is set to personally handle what is being called; 'The Potter Problem'. It seems the increasing numbers of protests and riots in wizarding communities have been giving the Ministry a difficult time and they wish it to stop immediately so they can concentrate on bigger projects like the new school for select students. However, it seems that 'Potter fans' have been causing a stir, trying to bring down the new government, making false claims that the Minister is being Imperiused when he evidently isn't. These protestors are not at all peaceful and it seems Potter's influence and previous rivalry with Fudge is encouraging Potter's supporters to destroy the tranquillity brought by the WIP party. After a month of being in office and dealing with over one hundred similar cases, the Minister decided to take action and later today he will visit Potter and tell him to relocate elsewhere to avoid spurring on his fans. Potter's relocation will hopefully inhibit more riots and allow the new government to manage the wizarding community properly without hassle. The meeting between Fudge and Potter will take place later today at Potter's current residence, and he is set to leave the wizarding world soon after for both his own and the country's good._

_By Rita Skeeter, new Editor of Current Affairs.'_

"Holy mother…" but Harry was cut off as Ron and Hermione bounded down the spiral staircase, a copy of the Ministry Latest in their own hands.

"HARRY! Have you read this?!" Ron asked him wildly, waving the newspaper around.

"Yes…I mean, what the bloody hell is going on?" Harry asked them all.

"Does this mean Fudge is coming here? And what's this about 'relocation'?" Hermione enquired dramatically.

"It must do. And is he going to try and kick you out of the wizarding world?" Ginny's eyes were wide, her mouth hanging slightly agape.

"But why now? Why's it taken so long? Why doesn't McKinnon have Harry killed? Why's he moving him around?" Ron rambled quickly looking at the other three for answers.

"Don't forget Ron, McKinnon likes to play with his food." Ginny stated coldly, leaving them all in a short silence.

"We should go down to the village and get the others?" Hermione said, as the rest of the family had risked splitting up and going to shop in the little village for the morning.

"No. We stay here. We never know when he'll come. If we leave this house unprotected he might destroy it." Harry told them sternly, brushing the hair out of his vision.

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Ron quizzed Harry.

Harry took a deep breath, "We wait and we prepare ourselves for a fight."

"Gawd, I don't believe this is happening." Ginny sighed.

"Well believe it Miss Weasley. It's happening alright."

Fudge was behind them.

It was just like he had appeared out of thin air and plonked himself right behind Ron and Hermione, who at the sound of his voice backed away as Harry and Ginny stood up. The four of them took their wands out. Fudge laughed with a sort of breathlessness as he tightened his black tie against his wrinkled throat. He then brushed off some specks off of his satin jacket and trousers before inspecting his perfectly polished shoes. Then he whipped out his own wand and directed it at Harry's throat.

"What do you want?" Harry spat.

"You, Mr Potter, are going home." Fudge said dryly, a light note of arrogance in his voice.

"I am home."

"Oh no, not this home. Your real home." Fudge sighed.

"You're going to try and send me to Godric's Hollow?" Harry asked stupidly.

"Of course not. This morning, Potter, you are going back to Privet Drive."

Harry's jaw dropped, his face reeled in complete shock as Fudge backed off and lowered his wand.

"I bet you didn't expect that did you Mr Potter?"

"No. No, I didn't." Harry muttered helplessly.

"Well, too bad. You're going, no questions asked."

"But why?"

"I said no questions, Potter." Fudge tightened the grip on his wand.

"Why are you sending me back to the Dursleys? Since when did they go home? What have you done with them? Imperiused them as well?" Harry shouted.

"I do not understand, Potter. I am sending you back to your family to protect this world."

"I protect this world." Harry argued.

Then Fudge replied manically; "No. I do. From people like you." Fudge then rushed forwards and grabbed Harry by the throat.

"Let him go!" Ginny cried.

"Ah, the girlfriend?! How sweet! Well, let's find out shall we?" Fudge said in a sing-song voice.

"I don't understand." Harry responded.

"We might be forcing you to leave the Burrow but not the people. We need you to go so to settle peace. But you can't go alone. We're allowing you to take two of the people close to you as you live the rest of your life like a Muggle."

"Why so kind? Surely McKinnon wants me to suffer?!"

"McKinnon?" Fudge began, pretending to be clueless, "Who is this person?"

"Don't lie to me! You are Imperiused by Jeremiah McKinnon! He is making you do all of this! He is forcing you to send me there! He wants me to feel useless, to be alone…he wants me dead and so do you!" Harry bawled at Fudge who simply shook his head in disbelief.

"Poor Harry Potter. Poor delusional Harry Potter. I think it's time to go. Come on kids! Who's coming with?" Fudge laughed grabbing Harry by the collar and dragging him away from Ginny. Harry nodded towards Ron and Hermione. He mouthed a sorry and a goodbye to Ginny.

"I'm sorry. You've got to stay here." She nodded in reply and blew him a kiss which he pretended to catch in his hand.

Fudge in the meantime clicked his fingers and two gangly but thickset wizards Apparated on either side of him and grabbed hold of Ron and Hermione.

"Bye bye Miss Weasley." Fudge winked as he and the two members of his secret police turned on their heels and Disapparated, taking the trio with them. Ginny was left alone in the living room for a few moments until her family swarmed in through the kitchen door.

"Ginny? What's wrong? Where are the others?" Mr Weasley asked his now sobbing daughter.

"He took them. Fudge, he came and he took Harry. He took all three of them."

"Where did he take them Ginny?"

"Back to the Dursleys."

Privet Drive. The street Harry had lived on with his mum's sister, her husband and child, had not changed since the last time he had saw it last July. The houses were all the same, square and more or less identical, all that had changed were the lengths of the grass on the gardens, the flower arrangements and the number of cars plus a couple of 'For Sale' and 'Sold' signs. It had remained the same, even number four, the Dursley residence. Harry had had nightmarish times living with the Dursleys throughout the sixteen years they had been together. But then they tried to make up for it last summer when Dudley complimented Harry and his uncle and aunt gave him a goodbye. Now things had changed again, as Cornelius Fudge had probably placed them under a strong Imperius curse.

The trio and the three grown wizards suddenly Apparated at the end of Privet Drive, the teenagers being held tightly by their receptacles at the back of their T-shirts. When they landed Fudge immediately thrusted Harry's wand out of his hand and the two members of the secret police copied him with Ron and Hermione. Then, when all three wands had been pocketed by Fudge, the three wizards jabbed their own backs into the smalls of Harry, Ron and Hermione's backs. Fudge then spoke coldly, "Walk."

They followed the instructions given to them and began the sluggish march number four which resided just a little bit up the street. The silver number, Harry could see, was hanging by a nail, the letter box was jammed with what looked like a hundred letters. The Dursleys' blue car shone brightly still as it had always done, sat smartly in the driveway. Harry ran these thoughts through his head to block the dread he was feeling taking the walk to the door of his once hated relatives who had made ten years of his life such a misery. And now that they were under control of the most dangerous wizard in the country via Cornelius Fudge, who knew what damage they could do under their own roof to their unwanted nephew. Harry even wondered if they had taken over Dudley too. It was a shame considering the sweet goodbye his cousin had given him so long ago now. He thought from that point that he would never see them all again, but he was wrong. McKinnon wanted to play mind games before he destroyed Harry and this is how it all began, by sending him back to the Dursleys, where it all started. And maybe this was the start of the end. There was no way in getting out of this one. Harry, Ron and Hermione without their wands were no match for three highly trained Imperiused wizards who had hold of their own wands not just the trio's. Then, the world that surrounded him, brought Harry back to reality from the depths of his thoughts. He looked upon his final destination. The door to number four, Privet Drive.

Fudge pushed past ignorantly and duly rapped hard on the plastic door a thorough five times so he could be heard clearly by the residents.

"Alright alright! I'm coming!"

It was Vernon Dursley, and he was making his way towards his front-door, every step he took increased the amount of tension riddling Harry's anatomy. He felt the ground slightly shake as Vernon Dursley completed his elephantine steps towards the glass door. He pressed his face against it before unlocking the door with a key, he turned the handle and swung the door open in anger.

"Yes?!"

Vernon Dursley's appearance had slightly altered for the first time in sixteen years from what Harry remembered. It seemed his waist and thinned and a bit of neck was now showing though there wasn't much. It seemed he had lost some weight probably due to anxiety and worry whilst being in hiding, and it had caused parts of his face to sag. Yet, he still had his purplish demeanour within his face and a vein in his temple was still throbbing even after a year. But, his thick moustache had thinned and he had lost some of his hair which had turned grey. Overall, it looked like the man had aged a decade since Harry last saw him but he didn't feel even a little bit of sympathy as he knew what was coming next.

"Aha…PETUNIA! The boy's here with his little friends!" Vernon bellowed down the hallway, completely ignoring Fudge and his men, but then he realised, "Oh, mister Fudge. I think that'll be all. I'll take the wands please." Vernon stated, Fudge looked slightly startled.

"Are you sure Vernon? And do you think it wise to keep the wands here? What if they try to steal them?" Fudge quizzed what seemed to be his new friend.

"Don't worry Cornelius. We know what to do if they try anything. That boy has never been able to do anything he wanted in this house." Vernon chuckled hellishly.

"I like your style Vernon, very appropriate for the situation. I'm sure McKinnon will reward you handsomely."

"Well thank you Cornelius. We'll take them now."

Harry was shaken from his stupor of bemusement at the sudden befriending of two of the men Harry had once had at the top of his most hated list, as Fudge had roughly re-seized the back of his jacket and threw him through the door into Vernon's belly. The latter pulled Harry up by his hair and pushed him aside to allow the other two to be shoved through the doorway but they still stood. Then through his mop of black hair, Harry saw Fudge take out the wands he had taken and had them handed over to Vernon who promptly shook hands with the new Minister.

"Thank you, Cornelius. Time to go." He winked.

"Remember what you must do if they cause any trouble or if you need me." Fudge reminded him.

"Don't worry I will. Now you better be off."

Fudge nodded before turning with his secret police and heading off back down the street and turning on their heels, Disapparating into the cold summer air. Vernon then lowered his hand which he had up in goodbye, and he turned to face the trio in his hallway.

Harry swung his fringe out of his eyes and stood up to be nose to nose with Vernon.

"PETUNIA! They're here! How many times?!" Vernon shouted, spit flew onto Harry's forehead before he rubbed it off. Then Harry turned away from his uncle to see his aunt, Petunia, his mother's sister, walk through into the hallway. She had also changed. Her hair had also started to grey and nearly every bone in his horsy face was now visible. Her neck was even more bent over than it had done when she spied on her neighbours. Her attire of a floating summer dress looked slightly grubbier than Harry would of expected, but then again she had been living in hiding with her family for a year up to now.

"What do you want?! Send them upstairs Vernon!" she screamed almost immediately at her husband, pointing her thin forefinger up the stairs, directing the trio. Harry stared her straight in the eyes sternly, trying to see past the Imperius curse, "Stop staring Potter and get up there with your silly little friends!"

Harry shook his head as Vernon grabbed his jacket again and forced his nephew up a few of the stairs, Ron and Hermione followed suit.

"Do you know what's happened to you?!" Hermione quizzed them hysterically.

"What on earth do you want girl?! Go up there with your friends and don't come down till we say!" Vernon bellowed angrily.

"She's asking you if you know that you've been Imperiused!" Ron shouted back in reply for her.

"Don't disobey, get upstairs or prepare to be punished!" Petunia copied her husband, using her loudest tone of voice.

"Come on." Harry whispered to them, he tried to bring Ron up with him but Ron shrugged him off.

"People died for you. What a waste." Ron spat on the stairs crudely before stomping his way up the rest of the stairs leaving Harry and Hermione surveying the hallway, Vernon and Petunia still stood there, a glint of malice in their eyes.

"What are you going to do with our wands? Brake them? Burn them?" Hermione asked Harry's relatives, "I mean you're not going to use magic are you? I know how badly you're against it."

"Of course we won't use magic. Because there's a small chance you three will know how to break it." Vernon then trudged up the hallway and pushed open the door of the already ajar under the stairs cupboard.

"Then what?" Harry muttered.

"Once we went through the plan with Cornelius we realised we had to invest in something that would keep your 'weapons' stored. We decided to buy a very expensive, very complicated electronic padlock for the cupboard. It uses a 4-digit code password to access it and it automatically changes every six hours to a code only we know. Also, the back of the door has been reinforced with a thick layer of metal with various combination locks. There is no way you could possibly break into it." Vernon explained before throwing the wands lazily into the vault like cupboard before closing the reinforced door and locking it by typing in the 4-digit code. It locked with a high pitched beep.

"Now…BED!"

Harry exchanged glances with Hermione who returned his stunned one with a bemused one. They then nodded and decided to follow Ron up the remaining stairs until they reached the top of the stairs, Ron and Hermione stood stock still until Harry got past them and led them into in his old room.

After he had turned the dust layered brass handle of the door he stepped into his room and immediately stood on something which stuck on the bottom of his trainers. Little shards of pottery, remains of the tea cup that Harry had once crushed accidentally on the day of his departure from Privet Drive. He still saw on the carpet a very faint stain where the tea had one spilt. His room was exactly the same it had been since he left it twelve months ago. The bed sheets were still crumpled in a bull, the pillow on the floor, those drawings of Hedwig lay on his desk…everything was exactly as he remembered it. Harry allowed the other two in and let them sit on his bed, they stared around avidly with wide eyes still shocked from what was going on. Harry shut the door with a quiet snap before venturing over to his desk and taking refuge in the straight-back chair behind his desk. He faced the other two before holding his head in his hands.

"What the bloody hell is going on? I can't get my head around it." Ron moaned rubbing his forehead.

"Don't you get it?!" Harry punched his desk, " McKinnon's Imperiused the lot of them! Him, Malfoy and Goyle! Now my relatives and the whole government is bent! And we're stuck here! "

"But if McKinnon has control of the Ministry can't he just pick you up and kill you and be done with it?" Ron quizzed him confusedly.

"McKinnon wants the wizarding world to himself. He wants full control but not the whole responsibility so has given that to Fudge to mind. Whereas he wants us, the people who know the whole truth to be cut off, to be distracted. Right until the moment comes when he can take full control. Then, when its time, he'll bring us back out of here and kill all three of us. He's just essentially copying his master." Hermione explained.

"So, what do we do then?" Ron asked them both.

"I don't have a clue," Harry began, lost, " We're trapped here. If we make a move the Dursleys will lose it and get the others around here ASAP. We won't stand a chance."

"First thing's first, we've got to get our wands back." Hermione stated leaving the other two perplexed.

"Hermione are you mental?!"

"She's right though." Harry told a bewildered Ron.

"But the code thingy?! It changes every six hours, the door's reinforced with metal and loads of locks! How the hell are we going to get the time to break into all that without being caught?"

"Carefully?" Harry issued sitting back.

"Yes, Harry, exactly!" Hermione cried triumphantly.

"Excuse me?"

"We're going to have to be secretive. Very secretive and very discrete. It's going to be hard. And it's going to take time. But we're going to have to act normal."

"Normal?! We're wizards!" Ron replied.

"How long?" Harry ignored Ron.

"I don't know. A week. A month…" Hermione began.

Ron interrupted; "WOAH! A MONTH?!"

"That's the maximum at least."

"We should be doing it now! We're wizards! They're Muggles! We've just defeated Lord Voldemort!"

Harry and Hermione were to respond but then fell silent as Ron uttered the Dark Lord's name.

"Excuse me?! Did you say Voldemort?" Harry gasped.

"YES I BLOODY WELL DID! VOLDEMORT! VOLDEMORT! VOLDEMORT!"

"Wow. It's just…"

"He's dead isn't he?! So what's wrong with it?! Never thought I had the balls? Well you thought wrong didn't you?"

"Anyway…"Hermione sort of smiled, "Today, lets devise a plan. Tomorrow morning we'll take action. Soon enough we'll be out of here and sorting out this whole mess."

"Sounds good. So what's the plan?" Harry muttered…

For the remainder of that day, Harry, Ron and Hermione devised a very detailed plan of how they were to escape from the Dursley household. In between this plan, they were interrupted with visits from Aunt Petunia who would enter the room with a tray laden with three small plates and some food. The majority of it consisted of just dry bread but by tea time she issued them with some butter. The only time they decided, and were allowed to leave the room was just for the toilet. By the time they decided to go to bed that night the space under Harry's floorboards where he used to hide his books was now full of paper scrawled by Harry and Hermione with every detail of their plan. Harry was unable to sleep that night so stayed awake doodling on a piece of paper at his desk whilst Ron and Hermione slept peacefully top and tail in Harry's bed under some very thin blankets. Eventually Harry began to drop off, so he decided to put away his pens and paper and lay his glasses on the desk. He then lay back and pulled a pillow from the ground and put it behind his head. He then slipped into deep unconsciousness, his mind delved into nothingness until something sparked. He could see in his dreams something looming closer and closer. It looked incredibly bright from afar but once it got closer he saw it was a face, a pale white face. Features then became prominent, and its identity was able to be figured out. It was those eyes again, those red, piercing, slit-like eyes…those long, skeletal white fingers…they went in front of him…they were going to get Harry, grab him…strangle him…Then the face changed. It was now clean shaven, a dark fringe covering black eyes, a malicious grimace on his visage. A body grew from the head and soon stood the fully formed man, a setting drafted in behind him, Harry felt his body collapse onto the ground. He was defenceless, the man took out a wand and held it aloft. The man uttered something Harry couldn't here, the sound wasn't working, but then he saw it…a flash of green light…getting closer and closer…no escape…

"HARRY!"

He woke up.

"What's up?! What happened?!"

Ron and Hermione were crouched down beside him on the carpet that he was lay, he was face down on it. He must of fallen off. But wait…he was covered in cold sweat, he was shaking a little bit, there was blood dripping down from his mouth. He weakly got up from the ground and perched himself onto the chair, still shaking, Hermione put her arm on his shoulder.

"Harry, are you okay?"

"Y-y-yeah….I'm fine. What happened?"

"You had a fit…" Ron said.

"I…what?!"

"You woke us up. You were shaking violently all over the place. You collapsed onto the floor and started to have spasms. You split your lip on the way down too." Hermione explained.

"I-I was…"

"Dreaming? We know." Hermione answered.

"How did you…?"

"We heard you mate," Ron started, "You were screaming. Top of your voice. 'Let me go!' and 'Don't kill me!'."

"What was it Harry?"

"Nothing, it was just a dream, like you said."

"But what of?"

Harry then briefly explained what he had saw in his obscure dream until the other two fully understood and they were interrupted.

"WHAT ON EARTH WAS ALL THAT SCREAMING?!" Uncle Vernon had crashed through the bedroom door, still dressed in pinstriped pyjamas, hair tousled and extremely red-faced.

"Nothing. It was nothing." Harry lied .

"THEN WHY ARE YOU BLEEDING?!"

"Accident. Room's a mess. My fault."

"Right…" Uncle Vernon began to veer out the door, "Breakfast will be brought up soon…" he exited the room shaking his head in disbelief.

"This is going to be harder than I thought." Harry whispered.

"Never mind. Let's get to work!" Hermione instructed.

Cornelius Fudge sat twiddling his thumbs, laid back in his straight-backed and tall chair facing the door leading into the Atrium. There he was, dressed in full black robes, head to toe, his small, arched wand lay on the desk in front. That being covered in a thick layer of parchment, broken quills and empty ink bottles here and there. On the walls around him were large portraits of himself looking cold and proud, holding his wand aloft. Fudge went to pick up one of the pieces of parchment but he dropped it back on the desk and picked up his wand instead. He flicked it and the piles of parchment flooded onto the crimson carpet loudly, the bottles smashes here and there. Then, there was a loud single knock on the door to the office. Fudge sat up straight and procured a single, spindly wooden chair from nowhere in front of him as he called; "Enter."

The door slammed open and in walked in Jeremiah McKinnon, soon followed by Draco Malfoy and Gregory Goyle who closed the door behind him. Fudge immediately stood up straight and eyed McKinnon carefully as he approached the opposite side of the desk.

"What on earth do you think you're doing here?! You could have been seen! Merlin's beard!"

"Oh, calm down Fudge. Take a seat and a whisky."

Fudge sat down but tightened the grip on his wand as McKinnon levitated a tray with bottles of whisky on it onto the desk in front of Fudge who unscrewed the cork in one and poured himself a shot. He downed it in one as McKinnon leaned against the desk.

"How are you today Jeremiah?"

"I'm twenty-five per-cent happy why?"

"Just wondering. And only twenty-five?"

"I will only be at full happiness once my missions are complete. Each mission completed represents ten per cent of that one-hundred." McKinnon explained, now twirling a wand between his fingers. Fudge squinted at it, it looked vaguely familiar. It was straight and black, there was a large silver serpent's head which served as a handle for the wand, and it had emeralds for eyes and razor sharp blades for teeth. It was the wand of Lucius Malfoy.

"Was acquiring the wand of Lucius Malfoy one of these missions?"

"No, no, no. Don't you remember. You allowed to me to choose a new wand from those the Ministry captured and imprisoned. I chose the best looking there," he now tapped the tip, creating small sparks that scorched the desk.

"So, what were they?"

"Exile Harry Potter from the wizarding world, estrange him from those who support him, that love him…so he's now trapped, lost and defenceless…no escape from his own home. And, to have control of the Ministry of Magic, to be able to have power over those of no importance in this country, to have links with other Ministries worldwide…" McKinnon's eyes crossed sleepily as he was caught in a momentary trance of delusion. Then he returned with a wide grin on his face.

"So where has this last five per cent come from?" Fudge enquired staring at McKinnon's new wand tapping against the wood.

"I believe I am halfway through being able to free my brothers and sisters from the darkness of Azkaban Prison and back into freedom to take their rightful place at the top of the world."

Fudge hesitated, he pushed his chair back casually from the desk as McKinnon lifted his head to stare out Fudge.

"Fudge?"

"I'm sorry Jeremiah but you know that cannot be possible. I'm sorry to inform you that on that front you are no nearer to freeing the Death Eaters." McKinnon leant over the desk, his wand rested on the desk.

"Explain. Now. Explain!"

"You know full well what I mean McKinnon! The possible idea that of even allowing the Death Eaters to be able to work for the community was considered completely barbaric by all of the members of the Wizengamot. Even me, I even doubted their reliability of their capacity to work," Fudge stands up and leans back over the desk to face McKinnon nose to nose, "Now bringing forward such a thing as letting them go freely with no charges well that's just insane McKinnon! That's when the people of this country begin to become suspicious of our decisions, our actions and how we work. That's when we the aspersions are cast, the inquiries are made, the strikes start, the riots begin and the uprising kicks off…THAT'S WHEN WE LOSE EVERYTHING?!"

McKinnon then slammed the head of Lucius' wand onto Fudge's splayed hand and the teeth of the serpent sank into his forehand, droplets of hand dribbled away from the puncture marks.

"YOU'RE THE MINISTER FOR MAGIC! Every single rule ever passed through these walls and into the wizarding world of this country comes from your final decision!"

"B-but…the board, they have the majority vote…I-I only declare the decision made. Nothing else. I don't have total authority!"

Jeremiah now grabbed Fudge tightly around his throat making the latter choke slightly, wincing about the sinking razor blades in his nerves. Blood drooled onto the table as McKinnon puts his face right up to Fudge's.

"If you don't do this Fudge you know what will happen to you."

"Nothing you will say can scare me McKinnon."

McKinnon wrenched the serpent off Fudge's hand and clobbered him with the snake head before spitting in Fudge's eye and flicking his wand at the pile of parchment on the ground which spontaneously burst into flames.

"DO YOUR JOB FUDGE!"

"Yes, yes, okay! Fine! But it'll take time to pass this through!"

"I'll have to take some insurance…" McKinnon pushes Fudge's desk askew and trudges forward to him.

"Yes of course…I have lots of gold…"

"No."

Fudge stared at him confused.

"Whatever do you mean then?"

"Place your hand on the desk."

Fudge did. McKinnon then slowly placed the serpents head onto the desk beside Fudge's hands. Fudge eyed it suspiciously.

"I'm going to play a little game. Choose a number between one and five."

"Five."

At the back of the office Draco and Goyle exchanged bemused looks as McKinnon laughed maniacally.

"Then you're screwed aren't you?!"

"What?!" Fudge cried.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" McKinnon rapped the snake hard on Fudge's knuckles hard, the latter screamed in dire pain.

"How will you live?!"

The snake head's jewels blinked, they now had pupils, they were real and so was the snake. The wand had transformed into a full length, green, striped snake with large vicious incisors. The snake hissed loudly as McKinnon continued laughing hysterically. The snake launched forward and ripped off both of Fudge's thumbs in two clean strikes. A spurt of crimson splattered the desk as Fudge collapsed onto his knees screaming, McKinnon still laughing kicked over Fudge's seat and ripped down one of his many portraits before gesturing the two boys to leave. McKinnon swung the door shut loudly while Fudge moaned incessantly.

"Release them Fudge or I will kill you!"


	14. McKinnon's Investigation

Cornelius Fudge did not venture to St Mungo's Hospital to tend to the wounds McKinnon had given him, instead he clumsily cleaned it up with magic and wrapped the stumps where his thumbs once were with thick bandages. Ever since his meeting with McKinnon, petrified, Fudge had been working much longer hours and even slept in his office on various occasions. He continuously sifted through various prison guard documents, modified various ones and sometimes created his own pretending they were weeks old. He had also lent few to Jeremiah McKinnon who visited for an update and scanned through documents, advising Fudge what to do. Now and then he held long, fruitless debates in the courtrooms which saw himself and a gang of his most loyal employees plus various prison guards for witnesses (usually Imperiused) face the Wizengamot, smaller than original, who were still adamant about their original decision. Though many had contemplated Fudge's many, over wild ideas this was one that overpowered his persuasive control on the Ministry. His charm, use of magic and pack of hooded warriors behind usually pushed decisions his way but the idea to let the Death Eaters go was never considered a good one by the Wizengamot. No matter how much he tried with his forged documents and various vicious rants backed up by his police force, the Wizengamot never backed down. They weren't scared of him anymore, the effects of his original, triumphant return were wearing off, and they were beginning to become slowly suspicious of his ulterior motives. Was everything as it seemed?

Tuesday the seventh of September, and the clock in the Atrium had just struck eight, the sun had set and the majority of Ministry employees had finished their shift. There were only few that were still in its walls, late-goers and those working over-time and night shifts. However, down in courtroom nine, Fudge sat in a high-backed chair at one end of the small courtroom with a line of supporters behind and beside him in regular chairs. Two hooded wizards, wands by their sides and knives in their robes' belt stood right behind Fudge, their eyes covered in shadows but definitely looking upon the scene in front of them. On the other side of the court in a long line were the members of the damaged Wizengamot. This was the smallest of courtrooms and had been modified to be less formal and more comfortable for its occupants. In the middle of the courtroom was a lone seat, nobody sat on it currently. The debate was now in full procession, the introductions and formalities had been completed and now all was open. From one side of the courtroom, from the shadows, Apparated a wizard dressed in black robes emblazoned with 'Speaker' on it, he had a head of shaggy grey hair and looked quite old. He took several step forwards till he stood between the two sides, close to the lone chair. He pointed a short wand to his throat and muttered in a voice of elocution; "Sonorus!" his voice then amplified slightly, meaning he was now louder than whisperings of the Ministry officials.

"Good evening gentlemen, ladies…it seems we find ourselves in this situation yet again!"

Many nodded in agreement or shrugged.

"Now, of course we all know the subject of the case we are yet again discussing! Whether the Death Eaters currently being held in both Azkaban and Nurmenguard Prisons should be released on the account given by our Minister for Magic; Cornelius Fudge, who has written and verbal evidence to believe that these men and woman have the right to be released. According to the Minister, all reports from the prison guards state on how the prisoners' behaviour is beyond adequate and many are persevering to become indifferent to their previous ways by performing empathetic and kind acts whilst living in said prisons," the Speaker paused for breath before continuing, "It has also become apparent that Mr Fudge believes these people we so freely discuss were Imperiused at the time when they committed their crimes and did not have any idea what they were doing. Currently there is no evidence to prove these theories however they have come backed up from the Minister himself who as we now is impartial to being biased towards any criminals tried in this Ministry. However, the Wizengamot are of a majority whose anonymous opinion sees a negative decline of the Minister's ideas. Once again tonight the matter will be debated freely between both sides, if the minds of any are changed the results of the vote at the end of this meeting will show whether the overall decision on the Death Eater's fate will be modified to freedom rather than planned execution. Between myself and the High Board of the United Ministries of the Wizarding World, we have decided this meeting shall be the last to take place concerning the matter. The decision made today will be final."

"Minister Fudge, your opening statement please?"

Fudge sat up straight from slouching in his large chair before pushing upwards and standing stock still, faced his opponents. His face set solemnly, he removed a piece of parchment from the depths of his robes and unfurled it before reading it aloud.

"As you all have seen during our previous meetings, you have all been witness to every single piece of evidence we can muster. What I do not understand is your capacities to process such valuable and truthful information as it is affecting your final decision making. The documents, statements and everything else overpower what you think is moral and ethical. The time to suddenly develop consciences and rebel against the decisions of the Minister are past, that should have been done, you cowards, when the Dark Lord was in control! Think about it dear members of the Wizengamot! The evidence is overwhelming, these people were Imperiused, they're behaving, they can help us rebuild this world but for some reason none of you can possibly realise this and I can't understand why?! These Death Eaters are rehabilitated and prepared to work willingly to whatever demands we require! We should take advantage of these opportunities however you stand there and defy me and what for?! You lose out on being able to get rid of the distractions of rebuilding little things here and there so we can focus on the bigger picture! With the Death Eaters we can revitalise this decrepit pit of a world we call home! Take my side Wizengamot and save the world!"

The crowd behind Fudge erupted into massive cheers and thunderous applause as he refolded the parchment and stuck in roughly back into his robes. He dropped back into his seat looking smug. The Wizengamot remained stony-faced only a couple raised their eyebrows in slight consideration before their feet were stamped on by others.

"QUIET!"

The Speaker had now been able to silence Fudge's backers before continuing to speak.

"Now, the head of the Wizengamot, Mr Felerium Vonderguard! Would you please raise and expel your opening statement to the rest of the court please!"

A wizard in his late fifties, relatively small, with greying brown hair, enrobed with furry, blue robes, a black, tall hat and a wand tucked inside his belt. He coughed into a small, white tissue before it disappear from his hand, he then began to speak in curt, Yorkshire accent;

"IMPERIUSED!" many in their seats recoiled as this abrupt burst of passionate anger erupted from Vonderguard's vocal chords, "There is no other logical explanation for the reasoning behind the actions my old friend Mr Fudge here has been able to display these past weeks! He is not the man that all once knew ladies and gentlemen! Even through his most erratic days at the end of his original tenure as Minister for Magic he never conveyed such capabilities of dark based policies and ideals. It has become apparent especially during these last few Wizengamot court meetings the Wizengamot has realised the truth behind the mask you have hidden behind this whole time! This entire government is under influence from no other than Jeremiah McKinnon himself because the Fudge we now would not allow the laws passed under this roof that have been released into Britain and parts of the Magical World globally! The Death Eaters maimed, harmed, murdered, slaughtered, massacred, destroyed, burnt and ripped buildings, establishments, people and hope itself apart in order to please a tortured soul! Tom Riddle's mind was a dark, dangerous place that no man could venture or deny, his control over his desperate, hopeless followers saw a metaphorical apocalypse of this world for too long! If it was not for Harry Potter none of us would be here right now! The decision to allow the Death Eaters to go by Mr Fudge here just shows McKinnon's desire to let his friends go in order to restart a revolution! The evidence is forged, faked and completely untrue! The reasoning behind wanting their release is invented and false! THE DEATH EATERS SHALL DIE! AND YOU CORNELIUS NEED TO BREAK FREE FROM THE WRATH OF JEREMIAH…!"

"IMPEDIMENTUM BOMBARDUS!"

A hooded figure in a black shawl had Apparated metres behind the patient, listening Speaker, a wand aloft swinging it in the direction of the Wizengamot releasing a massive blast of energy which hit every single member knocking them out unconscious. This included Felerium Vonderguard who had been in mid-sentence when he crashed backwards into his lone seat, landing on the stone floor with a deafening _clunk_. The Speaker who had witnessed these knock-outs whirled around on his heel to face the new person who with their free hand unsheathed a long silver knife from his pocket and plunged it into the Speaker. After a long, drawn out scream and a flash of deep crimson which splattered on the floor in a puddle. The mysterious figure twisted the knife before removing it allowing some more blood to appear and then with one quick slash, the Speaker's throat was slit in a clean strike and with a deep gasp he dropped to the ground dead. The figure dropped the knife before turning to the shocked faces of Fudge and his supporters who sat in their seats, stunned. He then yanked back his hood and threw off his shawl before trudging over to Fudge himself. It was…

"MCKINNON?!"

Jeremiah McKinnon stopped moving when he was just metres away from Fudge who immediately stood up and stared at McKinnon in amazement.

"You killed the Speaker?!"

"He's just a spare." McKinnon shrugged carelessly, stowing his wand away in his waistband.

"How are we supposed to explain that?!" Fudge pointed a shaking finger at the dilapidated body covered in dripping blood.

"Obliviate!" McKinnon removed his wand again and fired the memory charm at a burly, pug-faced wizard two seats away from Fudge who's eyes crossed and he fell into slumber.

"One of your followers lost control. Simple as," McKinnon explained quickly, "Same as them," he gestured towards two wizards at the far end of the court room who were still awake just a little hazy, McKinnon laughed as he shot a particular curse the wizards' way; "AVADA KEDAVRA!" The wizards' eyes opened wide as the flash of green light struck them down dead.

"Why not knock them unconscious?!"

"The time for stunning has gone, Fudge. Kill or be killed, that's how it works now." McKinnon muttered.

"How did you get in here?! This room's enchanted!" Fudge, paranoid, shouted back.

"We work together. I know how to break them and then I simply Apparated inside."

"What do you want McKinnon?" Fudge tried to calm himself down by plonking back in his seat, McKinnon trudged forwards and eye-balled one of Fudge's men who scampered off his chair, and McKinnon took it and dragged it in front of Fudge.

"Evacuate the court. Get them all out. I want a word with you in private." McKinnon, for the first time he had entered the room looked business-like and paranoid.

"You heard him. All of you, get out. I'll explain later." Fudge gestured a thumb-less hand above his head for the others to exit which they duly did in dribs and drabs. After a few minutes the only people awake in the room were Fudge and McKinnon exchanging a prolonged stare.

"All these people who have been knocked out will remember what happened before they became unconscious…" Fudge began.  
"Combined memory charm. Today never happened. The final meeting was arranged for tomorrow evening as the Minister was busy checking on Harry Potter. Simple." McKinnon explained brashly.

"Ah…so, you're not…disappointed?"

"Disappointed? My dear Fudge why would I be…?"

"I've failed," Fudge shook his head, "The Wizengamot see you pulling the strings on the whole operation. They will not back down until I drop the idea about releasing your cohorts…"

"It doesn't matter…I'll break them out myself…I'm not bothered about it all now…" McKinnon sighed.

"YOU HAD A SNAKE RIP MY THUMBS OFF! I LOST MY ABILITY TO BE AMBIDEXTROUS BECAUSE OF YOU! I STRUGGLE EACH DAY BECAUSE OF YOUR INSANITY!" Fudge ranted, his fists banged the wooden arms of the high backed chair.

"I…apologise…but I have my reasons for departing this mission temporarily."

"Explain yourself now McKinnon!" Fudge had taken out his wand, it sparked angrily.

"I've had joint access to all the Azkaban and Nurmenguard prison guard files haven't I? To aid you in your quest to prove the Death Eaters innocent? I've come across something that I wish to address Fudge."

Fudge's face relaxed, he placed his wand on his lap and looked at McKinnon intently who shuffled in his seat to get comfortable before continuing.

"A particular report I came across detailed a conversation between two Death Eater cellmates before they were interrupted by the guard who wrote the document who handed out a verbal warning. At first glance it was just another report we sifted out as on the outlook it didn't compliment your idea. I then returned to it and on further inspection it caught my attention," McKinnon began, "The conversation saw plans to the Dark Lord back and a possible mention of myself, they knew I was out here and thought I could help them escape."

"Who were these prisoners?" Fudge asked him hurriedly.

"Yaxley and Malfoy. I'd like you to arrange a visit for me so I discuss their theories with them."

"You want to visit Azkaban? Fine. Disapparate to the prison entrance and one of my men will be on the doors alone, he will escort you especially to the cell for an hour meeting. This will happen in two days' time I guess, this being my consideration of how long it will take to be put through. Meet me in my office tomorrow night, I'll cancel the final meeting, accept defeat. Eight pm sharp, be there and I'll give you confirmation. Let me go now to organise this. I'll see you there." Fudge sighed, exasperated after his lengthy talk. McKinnon nodded serenely, a small grin on his mouth as he stood up, turned on his heel and Disapparated leaving Fudge with the unconscious Wizengamot and dead wizards.

"Bastard's left me this mess to sort on my own…never mind…OBLIVIATE!"

Days passed at number four and plans were in full progression between Harry, Ron and Hermione hidden in Harry's old bedroom. After Uncle Vernon's rude interruption on the first morning Hermione quickly began developing ideas how they could break into the cupboard under the stairs and regain their wands. However as time went on they realised how difficult even planning the operation was going to be thanks to the regular inspections of one member of the Dursley family. Only hours after Uncle Vernon barged into the room on the first day, it was followed by the appearance of Aunt Petunia who had a tray littered with scraps of food which she called breakfast. It was then that they realised they weren't going to be fully alone for the remainder of their stay at Privet Drive.

Plans immediately sparked at night-time on that first day when Harry slipped on one of the floorboards in his room which appeared to be loose. Harry then remembered how he had used it to store his school books a few years ago when he was still at Hogwarts and studied at the dead of night. Now, Hermione discovered after pressing her ear to the thin wooden floor underneath the loose floorboard that it was directly above the cupboard under the stairs. Hermione then got Harry and Ron onto removing the floorboards surrounding the loose one as she scrounged some paper out of the corners of Harry's room and began to draw up a chart which she filled in regularly. As days went past she came up with a fully detailed table that saw when Uncle Vernon did his checks on the cupboard, so they knew when it was open. Their thoughts now rested on how to access the open cupboard at the right time and how to prevent the Dursleys attacking them or contacting Fudge in order to escape Little Whinging without detection. This took Hermione into deeper, longer periods of thought and left Harry and Ron completely lost. The only times when they were distracted were when they were checked on and they had to hide all of their plans under the bed. Apart from that they had all day, every day to conjure up a plan to escape number four, Privet Drive and develop a plot to de-Imperiuse Cornelius Fudge and return everything right back to the way it should.

McKinnon arrived on time to meet with Fudge in his office the night after the court room conversation and Fudge had told him to arrive at the prison doors at five the next morning to be greeted by one Mortinus Kaldavar, a prison guard. Kaldavar would then take McKinnon straight to Yaxley and Malfoy's cell for an hour long meeting. McKinnon duly accepted the terms not to use any form of magic whilst on the premises or threaten anybody within its walls. Then, the next morning, a couple of minutes early, McKinnon Apparated just beside the doors to the prison which overlooked a drop into the sea. Stood there, arms crossed and a wand in hand was a hooded prison guard, stocky and a couple of inches taller than McKinnon. He did not speak but immediately made McKinnon follow him into the reception area and up some stairs until they reached the Death Eater's corridor. None of them were awake, though they were some rustling in the cell that McKinnon and Kaldavar approached. Once there, Kaldavar unlocked the door using magic and ushered McKinnon in before wandering back down the corridor. There was a dim light in the small cell, Malfoy and Yaxley were awake sat on individual spindly chairs facing one another, another chair stood in front of them. They had been be foretold of this meeting.

"You're expecting me?" McKinnon quizzed them as he took his seat.

"Kaldavar informed and prepared us, said Jeremiah McKinnon was soon to arrive for a meeting on a particular subject organised by the Minister for Magic himself. How have you managed that?" Yaxley responded with a question of his own.

"If it wasn't for me Cornelius Fudge wouldn't even be in power," McKinnon began, "Fudge has been under the Imperius Curse since day one. I saw an opportunity as the positions in the Ministerial election were open I decided to find someone of experience who I could easily overpower. I found Fudge. Once he was enrolled I started pumping in my own ideals and soon enough election day came, I infiltrated the High Board and rigged the polls. Fudge won and now this entire country is under my control and nobody knows it, even other countries are under my influence. The workings of the world are up to me. This meeting was easy to organise, with the click of my fingers Fudge comes running."

"You astound me McKinnon. All those years you drifted in and out of the inner circle carrying out odd missions for the Dark Lord…who would of thought you'd grow into what you are Jeremiah…" Lucius simpered.

"Thank you, Lucius…I don't believe it myself…an outsider, not one of the pack but the Lord's most loyal…I am here in his honour." The faces of the prisoners turned to bemusement.

"Ah yes…could this be the reason for your odd little visit Jeremiah?" Yaxley requested.

"Indeed it is old friend," McKinnon smiled, "Recently I've tried to release you lot so I've sifted through the prison guard records…I failed my mission by the way and I will try to get you out some other time…however, one report detailed one of your conversations. From months ago…concerning theories about the possible return of the Dark Lord? Yaxley you were set to tell Lucius what you'd heard…?"

Yaxley grinned as he looked upon his cell-mate who nodded serenely, "Ah…that conversation…"

"Yes," McKinnon was beginning to become slightly excited, he sat at the edge of his seat, "Explain to me Yaxley."

"As you know full well, during the Dark Lord's reign last year I became one of his closer followers and relatively high up in the Ministry of Magic. During that period of time I was able to hear things, things of curiosity which I've been unable to investigate. However I told Lucius my findings and once we escape we wish to investigate them. However by the time you know maybe you could do that for us?"

"Precisely, just tell me everything you heard Yaxley." McKinnon nodded giddily.

"As you know the Dark Lord decided to stop using his own wand because of its connection with Harry Potter's, the reason for why he borrowed Lucius'. However somehow that was destroyed and the Dark Lord needed another wand, and apparently he wanted a powerful one, one that could properly destroy Potter. The Dark Lord confronted Ollivander once more for this reason, asking him questions about powerful wands and I did overhear once them mention 'the Elder Wand'. And as we all know from being children that has originated from the Tale of the…"

McKinnon interrupted, "…three brothers…but that's just a fairy-tale isn't it? Why on earth would the Dark Lord be enquiring about an old-wives' tale like that?"

"Once I heard the mention of supposedly the most powerful wand ever made, fashioned by Death himself and the Dark Lord believing and investigating into it, I had to carry on listening in. It seems the Dark Lord was one of few that believed in what they are commonly known as the Deathly Hallows. He had come across the tale and become deeply interested in the rumours surrounding the Elder Wand, he thought if he found it he could finally kill Potter," Yaxley continued, "It appears Ollivander was also a believer and he knew it was true, he talked about the history of the wand was drawn out in murder across the ages. He informed the Dark Lord he was unsure of its whereabouts as it's history ran dry many years ago though there were rumours floating around the Bulgarian wand-maker; Gregorovitch. The Dark Lord agreed to moving off Ollivander and onto finding Gregorovitch who was last known to possibly have ownership of the Elder Wand. According to the Ministry, a family of Germans and Gregorovitch himself were all found dead, the latter it seems had been tortured for a period of time. The Dark Lord it appeared was fruitless as he never appeared to have a new wand when I next saw him."

Yaxley took a pause for a deep breath before continuing his story; "The next thing I heard concerning the wand was a confrontation between the Dark Lord and Gellert Grindelwald, the great dark wizard Dumbledore defeated. Grindelwald was slain in his cell at Nurmenguard. I then didn't see the Dark Lord or hear anything from then on so I was unable to tell whether his mission had been successful or not, but as Potter survived, however that happened, and was later able to defeat our lord, I guess he failed. So, the most powerful wand in existence is still out there, lost and we want you to find it."

McKinnon ogled Yaxley disbelievingly, "And why is that? The damned thing's lost anyway!"

"The most powerful wand in existence Jeremiah!" Yaxley told him sternly, "Such a wand could be used in the right way to bring back the Dark Lord! If owning these Hallows like foretold in the fairy-tale makes one invincible or the master of death then being the latter will provide you, Jeremiah, the ability to bring back our beloved master! Once we've done that we can wreak revenge on Harry Potter!"

McKinnon smiled, "I must go then dear friends…a mission awaits me…"

He stood to leave, Yaxley looked happy with himself however Lucius looked worried, he coughed for McKinnon's attention, the latter turned around to face Draco's father.

"Yes, Lucius?"

"Draco…" he began, "My son…you're with him according to the Prophet? He's in your custody?"

"That's correct." McKinnon replied sharply, wanting to leave.

"How is he? Is he healthy? How is he feeling? Where is he, Jeremiah?"

"He' fine, he's more than fine. He's eating, drinking well. Impatient. He can't wait to break you and his mother out of here. He's eager too, to get revenge. He's pretty much marvellous my friend." Jeremiah faked a smile.

"I know you'll look after him well…just out of interest…Narcissa…could you drop a visit by solitary confinement?" Lucius pleaded, Jeremiah plainly shook his head like he was disappointed himself, "Well, it's been good seeing you, Jeremiah."

"More the two of you to be honest…if it wasn't for you two the things I'm about to do I would of never dreamed of…" McKinnon attempted to compliment the pair sat afore him.

"Good luck, Jeremiah…" Yaxley nodded firmly.

"You're a good friend…" Lucius smiled.

McKinnon nodded sourly before turning to the cell door and exiting it, halfway up the corridor he unsheathed Lucius' wand and twirled it between his fingers.

"I'm such a good friend aren't I?" he then chuckled with no remorse as he Disapparated straight into the office of Cornelius Fudge who yelped at the unexpected arrival of McKinnon.

"JEREMIAH!"

"No time to talk Fudge. Meeting went to plan. I've discovered a few things which when I've instructed you on what I want I'll have to modify your memory to my dimensions in case you're ever de-Imperiused," McKinnon rambled immediately, Lucius' wand still in his fist, "Get me a copy of Beedle the Bard, access to the workings of the late wandmaker Gregorovitch, Ollivander and the dark wizard Grindelwald. I would also like access to the headmaster's office at Hogwarts. There's something I want to investigate concerning the great Albus Dumbledore…"


	15. Escape From Privet Drive

September nineteenth. It was Hermione's birthday but it was a birthday like no other. Instead of being happy, with her friends or family like she had done on sixteen previous occasions thanks to Voldemort the last two had been very uneventful. Last year she found herself living in hiding with Ron and Harry in the wilderness and now this year, she was trapped within the latter's bedroom with the Imperiused Dursleys. However, today was going to be different to the previous eighteen days in captivity because today was the day that they would break out and return to the Burrow. After over a fortnight they had devised a fully efficient plan to access their wands and exit the house for a final time. It had involved Ron and Harry removing enough floorboards carefully above the exact position of the cabinet under the stairs. They also had to keep putting the boards back every day and then removed them again when continuing work. It was difficult as they were constantly monitored by one of the family but eventually they removed enough to be able to access the other layer of ceiling. This was to be broken through at the last moment so they could crash straight into the cabinet and retrieve their wands at the correct time. After a fortnight they had collaborated a time sheet of each time the pin-code changed and when Uncle Vernon did his regular checks on the wands. Harry and Ron would crash through at the precise moment he opened the door, take their wands, attack him and throw him into the cabinet, lock him in. At the same time, Hermione would take on both Petunia and Dursley who would most likely be in the kitchen. They had it all thoroughly planned out, to de-Imperiuse the Dursleys and escape without any hassle. But all was set to alter.

"Synchronise watches."

Harry, Ron and Hermione were stood in the middle of Harry's room, wrists together altering the time on their watches to meet that on the clock that rested on the wall. After this Ron and Harry tip-toed over to the loose floorboards and began to remove them one by one as Hermione kept a keen eye on the time. After the floorboards had been removed, Harry and Ron stood up and prepared to jump through the thin layer. Hermione took out a paper clip she had found on the floor and slickly unlocked the door and eased it open quietly, stepping out onto the balcony. Harry and Ron saw her near the banister on the stairs, they all took a look at the time as the clock slowly ticked towards the designated time of eight o'clock sharp in the morning. Hermione tip-toed down a few of the steps then…the clock struck eight and Uncle Vernon was heard manoeuvring from the kitchen into the hallway, he then bent down to type in the code on the lock. Hermione nodded. Ron and Harry jumped.

CRASH!

They fell through the wood and landed face first on the carpet of the cupboard to see the door of it swing open to see the shocked expression on Vernon Dursley's face. Ignoring the splinters of wood that stuck in their now partially torn jeans and jackets and even skin, Harry and Ron seized their wands and together bellowed; "REDUCTO!"

The joint force of their spell just about sent Vernon flying into the wall behind him and for Harry to burst out and fling Hermione's wand into the air towards the stair bannister which she came flying down on her backside, catching her wand on the way just in time as Dudley and Petunia fled out of the kitchen. Dudley looked the same as ever, huge and stupid and looking like a pig with a wig, except this time he had a slight stubble. At the sight of his unconscious father he bellowed in rage and what the trio didn't notice was that he was currently holding a sharp knife which he threw in Harry's direction. By this time Hermione had come down and she fired a spell at Dudley ("STUPEFY!") who ducked alike Harry who missed the knife. Dudley then got up and onto his feet and stared livid at the trio as Harry got to his feet. The trio then held their wands aloft in the mother and son's direction as Vernon grunted, he was waking up!

"What do we do?!" Ron asked wildly.

"RUN!"

Uncle Vernon pushed himself up as Aunt Petunia screamed and Dudley charged forwards, fist made. Harry flicked his wand at Dudley who crashed to the floor as Hermione screamed "Alohamora!" at the door which clicked and opened up wide. She ran through it and jumped over the wall firing a spell through and hitting Petunia squarely in the head. Harry and Ron shot stunning spells over their shoulders running through the drive and onto the road as the trio started to sprint up the street. Harry from a distance could see Uncle Vernon rummage in his pockets standing in the threshold of the house, in order to find his car keys, which he did. Once found, he, followed by the other two, made their way to the car. Harry, Ron and Hermione continued running until they turned a corner at the top of the road and diverted down a side street and hid behind a wall.

"What the effing hell is happening?!" Ron moaned angrily to the other two.

"We're about to be chased by my Imperiused relatives?!" Harry retorted.

"Then why don't we Disapparate? That was always the plan! We get out and go!" Ron shouted, waving around his wand furiously.

"Yes, after the Muggles were de-Imperiused and locked safely away! But now they've probably been able to contact Fudge, soon enough there'll be magical blocks appearing everywhere. We can't go Disapparating in case we land right into McKinnon's hands! We find our own way out!" Hermione explained quickly, still catching her breath.

At that moment they heard a car rumbling at high speed turning at the corner of the street, it was the Dursley car! Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at one another before nodding and running back up the street they had come past the Dursley car which just turned into the street, as they did they saw Vernon's purple face flex with even more rage as he was forced to spin around the car. Harry, Ron and Hermione continued running up the street and onto the other side down a slope, their wands now fully aloft as they ran as fast they could. Hermione then dragged both Ron and Harry so that they were able to hide behind a small bin. The three of them the fell down the wall and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Let's see if they drive past!" Harry exclaimed, holding his wand at the ready just in case. However he was distracted as he heard a massive bang go off nearby, and all three of them whipped their heads round just in time to see Dudley Dursley whizz out from behind a wall at the top of the street, onto a now empty road. The trio then assumed the car was behind him and that it had just recently crashed into the pavement, leaving Dudley to go flying.

"They crashed the car?!" Ron raised eyebrows at the strange sight of Dudley crawling to the pavement, blood spattered and covered in some soot as his parents timidly edged their way out of the car and tried to comfort him. By this time though Harry had stood up to see what the damage had been and by doing that he had revealed himself to his relatives as Vernon saw and gave him a calm stare of anguish as Petunia tended to Dudley.

Uncle Vernon lifted a finger in Harry's direction pointing at him mouthing the words 'Bye-bye'…Harry replied by mouthing the words 'Sorry' as Ron and Hermione desperately tried to pull him back down. However he shrugged them off as he squinted at what Uncle Vernon was now doing. It appeared that the latter was now retrieving what looked like an over-large Galleon from his top pocket, which he soon enough began to rub with his fat forefinger tenderly. After moments of this, he put the coin away and returned to tending Dudley leaving Harry wondering what on earth his uncle had just done. That's when Ron and Hermione finally grabbed their attention as they were able to grip onto what was really going on.

"HARRY! They're coming!" Hermione screamed getting onto her feet and dragging Ron with her.

"No, they're not. They're there!" Harry gestured wildly to his relatives across the street.

"No, Harry, not them. Fudge's men! That galleon your Uncle used is communication! He's contacted the Ministry to get us!" Hermione explained brashly before heading off up the road, Ron in tow. Harry stayed stock still for a moment and then decided to follow suit and that's when they came.

Right in front of Apparated a heavily cloaked wizard, his wand was pointed directly at Harry's forehead, in the distance Harry could see Uncle Vernon laughing to himself. But, before the guard could strike, Harry was too quick and flicked his wand at the wizard's chest making him fly backwards onto the road; "STUPEFY!"

Harry then turned quickly on his heel as several cloaked wizards began to appear out of nothingness who after seeing their colleague started to fling hexes and jinxes around Harry who sprinted for his life to catch up with Ron and Hermione. Eventually he did, and then the three of them began shooting spells over their shoulders occasionally hitting a wizard but once one disappeared, another came along to finish the job. One of the wizards was faster than the others and was gaining on lagging Harry, Hermione shot a spell at the wizard's hood which lowered to show a face which crossed-eyes, most likely to of been Imperiused. Harry then swung his wand low to take the wizard off his feet and crashing onto his feet just for another wizard to jump over him and fire the Cruciatus Curse above Ron's head.

This firing of constant spells lasted until the trio got to the top of the street and Hermione was able to divert them behind a wall and grab hold of their hands. Ron and Harry knew what she planned to do and so were prepared to jump up and turn on their heels.

"Three! Two! One!" Hermione then pulled them both up with her and they were ready to Disapparate when one of the wizards had caught them up and grabbed hold of Ron's arm just in time as the trio Disapparated. Seconds later after the sensation of crushing lungs and lack of breath the trio eventually crashed onto their knees on cold concrete but before they were able to regain full consciousness and onto their feet Harry felt Ron fly backwards. So, he immediately opened his eyes to realise that the wizard had held on during the Apparition and was now with them in a new location, an average Muggle garden. The wizard's wand lifted slowly from its previous direction at Ron's chest, the latter now being partially unconscious on the ground behind Harry and Hermione. The wizard guard slowly rose to his feet just like Harry and Hermione did until both sides had their wands pointed at one another's faces. Ron groaned in the background as he weakly rubbed the place on his chest where he had been hit but his best friend and girlfriend ignored him as they were eying up the masked wizard in front of them.

"Surrender Potter! Come with me now!" the wizard roared through his mask.

"And go where?!" Harry hollered back, sparks flew out of the tip of his wand.

"Where do you think?! To Azkaban of course! PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" the wizard launched an invisible blast of air that both Harry and Hermione ducked easily before blasting their own non-verbal spells back at the wizard.

The wizard swiped away Harry's but was unable to stop Hermione's who's knocked the wizard's mask leaving his face showing to be vaguely familiar. Then Harry was able to realise who it was, it was one of the old Aurors from the Ministry of Magic who he had seen once before rushing about in the corridors when he went for his hearing back in fifth year. He didn't recognise him exactly as he'd never talked to the man but he knew that once he had been good, however Fudge was in charge now, and things were different.

"You worked for the Ministry didn't you?! As an Auror?!" Harry bellowed at him, avoiding a stunning spell.

"And what if I did?!" the ex-Auror launched another non-verbal spell that missed both Harry and Hermione and instead struck a newly awoken Ron who lay back down, dazed.

"That means you once fought evil!" Hermione joined in, "IMPEDIMENTA!"

The wizard deflected the hex before continuing arguing, "I still do! You! EXPULSO!"

A bunch of pebbles went flying into the air near Harry's left foot as he swung the Reducto curse at the wizard who was pushed backwards over a flower pot and onto the ground.

"No…you are evil!" Hermione ran past and jumped over the flowerbeds of the garden and directed her wand at the wizard's chin, in reply he laughed maniacally as he weakly slipped a hand into his robes and took out a large coin similar to that of Uncle Vernon's. He agitatedly rubbed it laughing before Hermione could notice but as she did and kicked the coin out of his hand, two more wizards appeared alongside him, one punched Hermione straight in the jaw so that fell down, spraying some blood from a cut lip, and the original wizard stood back up.

There were now three Imperiused, highly trained wizards against Harry in a Muggle garden. Harry nervously plucked up the courage to take a step forward and hold his wand aloft alike the three of Fudge's guards who stood before him.

"Come with us Mr Potter or you will pay for it. So, will your friends." A different guard uttered roughly.

"No they won't. And I won't bow down to you." Harry spat back at them, tightening the grip on his wand.

"Then we'll take you by force."

"Bring it on."

"CRUCIO!" Harry flung himself onto the ground avoiding the curse before slinging his wand smoothly at the previously talking wizard's legs leaving him to collapse onto the floor in agony. Harry then jumped back, "STUPEFY!" the original wizard that had followed them was also thrown backwards near to where Hermione lay unconscious. There was now just one wizard left to tackle and Harry knew this one surely had a little bit more fight in him than the last two. He was then proved right after Harry launched a non-verbal spell at a trampoline behind the wizard which had its coverings blown off. The wizard had avoided this blast cleverly enough to be able to direct his wand completely at Harry while Harry was unprepared.

"AGUAMENTI MAXIMA!" the wizard spear-headed his wand in Harry's direction.

"OH OH!" unready to inflict any damage to the oncoming water charm.

Suddenly a jet of water burst out of the wizard's wand and hit Harry full on and constantly drenching him so he was unable to repel it in any way, his wand was being forcibly pushed back by the water so he was unable to direct it in any way. The wizard behind the water charm laughed horribly as the water got stronger and stronger. Harry moaned as the water got colder and colder on his skin, he was unable to resist until it all came to an abrupt halt. The charm lifted and the wizard dropped to the floor, above him was Hermione who dropped her fist and then picked up her wand before checking the other two wizard guards were also unconscious before she moved over to Harry who shook his incredibly damp hair out of his eyes and sighed.

"Wet are we?" she laughed sarcastically, her wand by her side.

"Just a bit."

"What did I miss?" Ron had regained consciousness and was fully back on his feet, which were partially wet from the charm, his wand was tightly gripped in his left hand.

"Nothing really." Harry said dragging his sopping fringe out of his eyes before removing his glasses and giving them a quick rub on his jacket. Now that he could see he was able to notice the damage done his friends. Ron now had a few grazes to his face and Hermione a purplish bruise under her eye and a deep cut lip which protruded blood droplets.

"You two look like hell." Harry laughed.

"You can't say much." Ron guffawed lamely.

"Come on. We don't much time before more of them come. Maybe even Fudge or McKinnon themselves. Lets Disapparate!" Hermione grabbed hold of Ron's hand and began to turn on the spot, her wand aloft when reaching for Harry's held out one until behind them another cloaked wizard appeared at blasted a hex at Harry's face throwing him down on the floor as Ron and Hermione disappeared screaming; "HARRY!"

Harry was now face down in the grass, covered in fresh blood which had come from his cheek being ripped open by the spell. He tried to shout for Ron and Hermione, knowing that they had gone without him, but he was now weak from the blow to the face. Harry then felt the vibrations of the hooded wizard near him and slam a booted foot into his jaw flinging him onto his back. The guard then dropped the foot onto Harry's stomach and held him there as Harry tried to resist and crawl out, his wand had now rolled away from him. Out of reach he extended his fingers as much as possible but the wizard flicked his wand at Harry's fingers, scorching them. The wizard then spat in Harry's face before shouting; "INCARCEROUS!" Instantly, Harry was now bound in tight ropes so he was unable to move properly, the wizard took this opportunity to break Harry's cheekbone with his boot spurting blood onto the grass. The wizard then threw down his hood and chucked down his mask breathing heavily. He then bent down to Harry and grabbed him by the throat roughly and dragged him onto his feet.

"You're coming with me Potter." the unknown wizard then turned on his heel and Disapparated with Harry in tow.

Ron and Hermione suddenly crashed feet first into part of the Weasley back garden, their previously joined hands separated and they immediately got onto their feet, wands aloft and ran towards the Burrow back door. There were two burly looking Ministry, as they discovered later the Weasleys had been surrounded by Ministry officials in order to make sure no attempt was made to save the trio at Privet Drive. Ron and Hermione jabbed their wands in the officials' direction hollering; "STUPEFY!" The wizards fell onto their backs with immense force causing an uproar inside the house which saw Ginny lead the other Weasleys to the back door. However behind them was another official who Ron quickly stunned in the forehead.

"OH MY GAWD! RON! HERMIONE! YOU'RE BACK! WHERE'S HARRY?!" Ginny screamed, removing her wand from her back pocket.

"We lost him! He's been caught by the Ministry! How many others are there?!" Hermione quizzed them all hurriedly.

"Erm…about four more I think!" George joined in.

"Okay! Mrs Weasley, Fleur! Can you de-Imperiuse these two and re-Imperiuse them with new orders. To leave this house and never return. You'll have to do that for the others we knock down too!" Hermione instructed a nodding Molly and Fleur before turning to Bill and Mr Weasley, "Bill, Mr Weasley…! Start putting up enchantments all around the house to prevent any of the Ministry getting to us once we've got rid of these lot! The rest of you follow me and Ron to get rid of these others!"

Hermione then pushed in front of the four she had ordered duties to get into the kitchen before racing into the living room followed by Ron, Ginny, George and Charlie. There they found four more burly looking Ministry offiicials who advanced immediately their wands aloft before starting to fire non-verbal spells here and there. Ginny quickly ducked down behind the sofa whose pillows were flown into the air before she arched her wand over the arm of the sofa and knocked one of the wizards crashing into the wall.

Elsewhere, Ron started to get a flow of hexes be thrown at him, one after the other until he was able to muster diving onto the ground and taking a swing at the wizard's legs which made him flop to the ground; "CASUS!"

Hermione jumped over the sofa where Ginny was hiding and was able to gain the control of a wizard who was attacking Charlie. She span the wizard around before blowing him backwards with a simple flick of the wrist, now she had left Charlie able to take on the last remaining wizard with a struggling George. George had now resorted to levitating the remaining cushions at the official who swept them aside lazily before striking George at the shoulders. Once Charlie entered the frame he begun a mini-duel between himself and the official which was short-lived as Ginny, who was sick of waiting to get rid of this final wizard, jumped across and with one slash of her wand knocked the official out cold. She flung her hair back over her shoulder and stashed away her wand as Mrs Weasley and Fleur entered the living room, ignoring the mess, and went onto de-Imperiusing the four wizards as Hermione made her way back to the back door. Once there she saw Bill and Mr Weasley beginning to put up various enchantments into the sky like the Muggle-repelling charm, Muffilato… Now she was content with the work around she began to consider Harry's current situation wherever he was.

Harry soon regained consciousness and was able to breath a deep sigh of relief as he felt his knees crack against the cold concrete that he suddenly landed on.

"ARGH!" he screamed in anguish as he rolled onto the ground in dire pain, his eyes closed and teaming with stinging tears however he was unable to fully experience this pain as he was roughly seized by the collar and thrown up against a wall.

"STAY STILL POTTER!"

Harry opened his eyes wearily to see the wizard that brought him here have his wand pointed directly at Harry's heart as he checked the robes Harry was entwined in were tight enough. Harry tried to take in the surroundings of what seemed like a corridor until in the distance the latter was able to hear some footsteps in the distance. Eventually they arrived and seemed to belong to the current Minister for Magic; Cornelius Fudge who jabbed his wand at Harry's throat before speaking.

"We're in the middle of trying to capture your friends. In the meantime you'll spend your time alone in solitary confinement." Fudge's wand sparked singeing Harry's collar.

"Where am I?" Harry groaned weakly.

"Azkaban!"

"Azkaban?! Fudge are you mad?!" Harry struggled to break his bonds angrily.

"You'll be sentenced immediately to stay here until further notice without a trial until the majority of the Wizengamot decide on a specific length of time for your punishment." Fudge explained arrogantly, ignoring Harry.

"Fantastic. Sounds brilliant." The other wizard punched Harry in the face and spat in his eye in reply of his remark whilst Fudge just looked on calmly. He then lowered his wand and with a quick slash of it was able to remove Harry's bonds allowing him to collapse onto the concrete floor.

"Stand up Potter." Fudge issued coldly.

Harry reluctantly pushed himself onto his feet and was pushed back onto the wall by the guard as Fudge then said; "Check his pockets for anything, if you find anything, remove it."

The wizard complied and began to roughly search Harry's jacket, t-shirt and jeans but was only able to remove his broken watch and a now wet and crumpled drawing of Hedwig which Harry had decided to save from the Dursley house. The wizard threw away the watch and tore the drawing into tiny bits in front of Harry's face which showed the expression of Are-You-Satisfied?! Then suddenly, beside the first Ministry official came another, one of the ones from the garden looking exhausted yet a malicious grin lingered on his twisted face. Harry's wand resided in his clenched fist and he roughly gave it to Fudge who pocketed it, "Thank you Dorium."

Dorium nodded serenely before Disapparating off again.

"Mr Gravenheart, would you please take Mr Potter down to solitary confinement please. But do shield yourselves, the 'other' prisoners are out on a temporary relapse. Its their mid-morning walk about the corridors."

Fudge explained, the corners of his mouth turned almost like a smile.

"Of course sir."

The wizard, now apparently called Gravenheart, grabbed Harry by the jacket and whispered; "INCARCEROUS!" And suddenly Harry's hands were bound tightly with some thick rope before Gravenheart began to drag him down the corridor whilst he shrouded them both in a heavy force field; "PROTEGO!"

Harry was now being forcibly dragged by his shoulders down the corridors of Azkaban Prison by Gravenheart as he turned his head behind him to see Fudge walking away, stashing his own wand away to admire Harry's.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS FUDGE! YOU'RE IMPERIUSED! LET ME GO! YOU NEED TO SEE THE TRUTH! I CAN'T STAY HERE! MCKINNON WANTS ME DEAD! DON'T LET THEM OUT!" Harry continued to bellow until Gravenheart silenced him with his wand ("Silencio!"), Harry now gave in as he was unable to speak so instead watched Fudge's feet disappear into the darkness at the end of the corridor. Harry then turned back to the corridor before realising he was about to be dragged down a stone spiral staircase. He legs and arms bashed against the sharp edges of the steps as he was dragged down, he scraped off skin, sprained bones and gave blood as he made the way downstairs. Once at the bottom of the stairs Harry saw a new corridor, but this time it wasn't just four walls because on these four walls were cell doors. And by the looks of it nobody was inside them mainly because every single surviving Death Eater stood stock still in the middle of the corridor in a huddle.

"HARRY POTTER!" Yaxley cried, therefore provoking immediately the other Death Eaters to follow him as he rocketed forward his fists aloft at Harry, full-speed. In the blur of Death Eaters Harry saw Lucius Malfoy, Crabbe Senior, Fenrir Greyback, Antonin Dolohov, Amycus Carrow and some others begin to try and attack him. However, the see-through bubble surrounding Harry and Gravenheart prevented all possibilities of damage inflicted.

Lucius Malfoy pathetically scratched away at the shield bubble, tears in his eyes as he screamed dramatically, mentions of his son were in there though. Yaxley was ferociously punching and kicking at the bubble as Gravenheart solemnly continued to drag a deeply worried Harry who struggled to ignore the oncoming attacks all around him. Crabbe Senior was ramming the bubble and failing of course screaming how Harry killed his son and then you had Greyback who took a run up and ran in, fangs out, trying to bite Harry. The others jeered and struggled to get through the barrier, bellowing in chant-form; "LONG LIVE THE DARK LORD!"

All of this lasted until Gravenheart and Harry reached a door at the end of the corridor which Gravenheart opened with a flick of his wand and waltzed through before locking the door and removing the bubble shield. Harry heard through the door he had just passed through as Gravenheart continued to drag him through a new corridor, scrabbling on the wood, chants and screams and cries of rage as they tried to break down the door. However, the noise eventually died down the further down the seemingly empty corridor the pair went.

There was a lone cell door at the bottom of the corridor which Gravenheart stopped beside and casually slammed Harry against the wall. Gravenheart took a fist to the cell door and banged on it hard until the lock inside the door opened to reveal another hooded wizard guard who had hold of Narcissa Malfoy! The pair of them trudged out of the cell however Narcissa was blind-folded and was unable to see Harry so she simply complied with her guard and made her way out of the cell and down the corridor Harry and Gravenheart had just walked down. Harry, paranoid stared at the back of Narcissa as she was being walked towards the other door as Gravenheart pulled on him roughly to get into the cell, whose door was entitled with a small plaque reading; 'SOLITARY CONFINEMENT'. Gravenheart was just about to push Harry into it however they were distracted by the door beside them at the end of the corridor smacking open and two more people entering the corridor, mirroring the ones approaching the end of the corridor who also turned around to see what was happening. Narcissa looked around clueless, "What's going on?! Why've we stopped?!"

Harry also turned around to see what the commotion was all about and when he saw it he was immediately shocked by what he saw.

Hands tightly bound together with a piece of thick robe and being gradually dragged by the shoulders thanks to yet another hooded and masked prison guard, was a fifteen or sixteen year old witch. She was just a couple of inches taller than Harry and had thick, light brown hair and darting, dark brown eyes. Her nose was quite small and pointed and her lips were pursed in a fixed pouting position. She wore basic blue robes and white plimsolls which had been squeaking across the concrete ground until she and her guard had entered the corridor. When they had stopped she swept her hair out of her face and kept her head down.

"He's let you go has he?" Gravenheart spat at the girl rudely, she lifted her head gracefully and stared at him.

"She's been let out on the basis she doesn't go within fifty metres of any Muggle Borns or Half-Bloods. If she does she'll immediately be sent back here with no trial for as long as the Minister wants her to stay her for as a form of rehabilitation. According to him we need to make sure these lot don't make fools of themselves. Whatever that means." The girl's guard mumbled.

"Standards are slipping if they're letting filth out like that." Said the wizard at the top of the corridor holding Narcissa.

The witch's eyes darted about the corridor where she fixed them curiously on both Harry and Narcissa. On Harry she whispered; "Harry Potter?!"

"Come on girl. Let's get you out of here." The wizard holding her began to try and drag her up the corridor but she was resisting slightly.

"Harry Potter?!" she echoed loudly.

"Shut up girl and move! Mr Potter's trying to get to his cell!" the guard instructed her crudely before dragging her by both her arms as she looked back onto Harry who was still pushed up against the wall by Gravenheart. By this time the girl had reached the other end of the corridor where the wizard minding Narcissa was prepared to exit the room. The girl's eyes now darted to a blind-folded Narcissa.

"NARCISSA MALFOY?! OH MY GOSH! NARCISSA! OH! YOU'RE MY FAVOURITE! I'm you're biggest fan! You're the true alpha-female of the Death Eaters! Not that Bellatrix, she was just a poser but you! You're wonderful!"

"What's going on?! Who is that shouting?!" Narcissa demanded stomping her feet as the wizard and the girl reached her.

"No-one, just a bitch. Ignore her, now lets carry on." The wizard holding Narcissa now opened up the door to the other corridor with the Death Eaters and lead the other pair into, cueing large cries and shouts, the loudest being from a weak Lucius Malfoy who called out for his wife but seemed to be silenced as Harry saw a flash of light underneath the door cut off all the hubbub.

"Who was that? Who was that girl?" Harry muttered through bleeding lips.

"Get in the cell!" Gravenheart seized hold of Harry's jacket and threw him nastily onto the cold concrete floor of the prison cell. Harry immediately ran up to the door however it was thrown backwards on its hinges so it locked instantaneously with the simple flick of a wand by the guard. Harry then reverted to collapsing onto the ground and breathing heavily, still dripping from the water charm earlier, he wiped some excess blood off his face and stared at the door, anger in his eyes. He was now only metres away from a group of dark wizards who wished to kill him however for now he was stuck in small box room, helpless and unable to stop how the wizarding world was falling apart.


	16. A Final Effort

It was now a fortnight into October and autumn was in full progression by this time as many could tell by the abundance of multi-coloured leaves that scattered the streets and gardens across the country. The temperature was steadily declining, frost was beginning to appear here and there and there were short showers of rain every so often. However, the only thing that hadn't changed in the wizarding world was how it was run, that essentially being, it was still run by Fudge and the WIP Party under Jeremiah McKinnon's orders.

At that current moment alike the past three or so weeks, the Ministry had been trying desperately to break the enchantments surrounding the Burrow but were unable to penetrate the defences set up by the Weasleys and Hermione. Within the house itself they were lucky enough to have enough resources to last as long as they did as none of them dared leave the boundaries in case they were attacked or taken away. An order for the imprisonment of both Ron and Hermione had been issued to the general public by the Ministry via the Daily Prophet though only few believed or understand its purpose. By now it had become general knowledge that Harry Potter had been caught attacking Muggles unlawfully and attempted to escape an arrest causing him to be locked up in Azkaban.

It was now Tuesday the thirteenth, and it was a cold, crisp morning at the crack of dawn when Ginny was found to be in the garden alone, looking up at the enchanted sky afore allowing herself to re-read an old copy of the Daily Prophet, from the morning after Harry's arrest. Under the large banner headline 'POTTER ARRESTED!' was a large, moving image of Harry in sepia tone looking ferocious within solitary confinement. Harry could been seen running at the cell door screaming and banging his fists. This horrifying image of her beloved boyfriend made Ginny tear up and begin to cry so as usual she scanned the front-page and quickly turned over for the full article concerning the events which had been twisted to suit the interest of the readers.

_'TROUBLESOME TRIO ATTACK MUGGLES!_

_It has come to our shocking attention, that the three wizards that we have all previously adored and respected for their conjoined effort against the Dark Lord back in May, have committed dire offences against the Muggles they swore to protect a year ago. Late last night news came into Prophet headquarters that Harry Potter himself had been forcibly taken to Azkaban Solitary Confinement for the excess use of hexes upon his relatives. Cornered in another Muggles' garden the previously Chosen One was caught trying to Disapparate from the scene of a crime. After trying to kill his relatives in a car-crash in Surrey yesterday Potter, it is revealed, took it upon himself, helped by his cohorts Ronald Billius Weasley and Hermione Jean Granger, that they attacked several Ministry officials and destroyed part of the garden itself. Sadly, the latter two were able to disappear but Potter was immediately taken to the wizard prison and put rightfully into a cell. It seems though he seemingly defeated the Dark Lord single-handed earlier this year he may have been helped a great deal by his missing allies. Potter has appeared to be a dangerous wizard intent on damaging the lives of innocent Muggles and our lord Minister Fudge has put Potter into what he calls 'rehabilitation'. Rumour is Potter may have part of You Know Who's soul within him and our master Minister Fudge's plans see these problems put right in Azkaban. Hard effort is also being put in into locating the two missing allies of Potter's, Weasley and Granger. They are supposedly within deep hiding around Ottery Saint Catchpole down in Devon, but Ministry officials are still working hard to penetrate the defences and trial them for their crimes. It has not yet been confirmed how long Mr Potter's sentence will be as he has not been trialled by the Wizengamot however the Minister himself will decide sometime soon. For now, we can sleep safely at night knowing a wizard we once believed in gone mad with power, has been put away from harming others. Believe now in the decisions made by your lord and master; Minister Fudge! Long live the WIP Party!_

_Written by new-editor; Rita Skeeter._

"Utter rubbish!" Ginny threw down the newspaper in disbelief once again before sitting back in her deck chair and gazing up at the sun, tears streamed from her eyes as she thought about what Harry must be going through. She closed her eyes and saw flashes of his face, laughing and talking, stroking her hair, kissing her, however it then changed…he was back at the lake sobbing at Dumbledore's portraits remains…then he was going crazy within solitary confinement, crying for mercy…

"Ginny?"

Startled, she nearly fell off of her chair backwards but was able to stay on her feet and look beside her to see both Ron and Hermione smiling gently at her before placing their chairs respectively either side of hers.

"Sorry, I was…thinking…" Ginny mumbled, wiping her face.

"You were thinking about Harry weren't you?" Ron asked her kindly.

"Y-yeah…"

"It's okay. I'm sure he's going to be fine. It's Harry, he's strong…" Hermione reassured her, patting her shoulder.

"I know that its just…I really miss him…we've been separated again…this is not happening to us again!" Ginny exclaimed banging her fist on the arm of the chair.

"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find him a way out…or he will…" Ron said, looking over his sister's shoulder into the distance.

"He's good like that Harry…" Hermione smiled.

"But this is Azkaban. There's Imperiused guards on every door. McKinnon could even be wandering around the place." Ginny sobbed quietly.

"I doubt that. He's probably making Draco and Goyle kiss his feet right now while drinks a big bottle of Firewhisky…hope he chokes…bastard!" Ron mumbled angrily, the wand his hand sparked furiously.

"Ron, calm down. Harry's going to be okay." Hermione uttered.

"I hate this!" Ginny stood up and kicked over her chair, "I CAN'T STAND AROUND PRETENDING EVERYTHING'S GOING TO BE OKAY WHEN IT ISN'T! Harry's in Azkaban for gawd's sake! I WANT TO HELP HIM! NOW!"

Hermione got to her feet and put an arm around her, "Ginny. There's nothing we can do. If we leave the boundaries me and Ron will be frisked to Azkaban too and you'll probably be killed."

"Then what do we do in the meantime?!"

"We just have to wait…" Ron suggested laying back on his chair and gazing up into the sky.

"Yeah…" Ginny stood stock still as Hermione sat herself down and snuggled up to Ron.

They stayed there for the remainder of that morning, talking just about Harry, only Harry and how they all wished he was there with them.

Harry woke up. He had been dreaming calmly and sleeping normally for the first time he had been stuck in solitary confinement however it had been ruined when Ginny's face transformed into McKinnon's and went to kill him. Harry now was awake and covered, once again, in cold sweat. By this time, after a month of being stuck inside his cell with no access to the outside world, Harry was still wearing the same clothes he had arrived at the Dursley's in and he had been unable to have a wash or anything since he had entered Azkaban as his cell was unable to provide any water. He had a small pot in the corner which contained his waste which was removed and cleaned out every morning by Gravenheart, who had now been assigned the permanent job of guarding Harry's cell as well as providing him the essentials. Twice a day, Gravenheart opened the cat-flap at the bottom of the cell door and slid in a small plate of food with a mini goblet of dirty water. The food usually consisted of dry bread, crackers or some plain cheese. Now because of this lack of food Harry was now especially very weak and unable to function properly meaning he barely stood up and walked around like he used to do for the first few days. There wasn't much space in the cell as the four walls were very close together and were completely blank with nothing on them. There was a blue lantern in the corner which Harry was allowed to light once at night with a match that he was given. The majority of the time he was monitored doing this but sometimes Gravenheart couldn't be bothered and Harry was able to slip a match into his pocket.

Harry's teeth were now coated thickly with dirt, plaque and food as he'd been unable to brush his teeth. His face was incredibly sooty and dirty, and crumbs resided in his newly grown stubble. Old cuts and bruises from his adventure to prison had now been coated over with fresh skin but some wounds had been reopened and in addition more had been added during his time there. Fudge had allowed Gravenheart to expel his anger daily onto the only punch-bag he could find, Harry. Now he had scars and bruises and gashes everywhere from head to toe, some of his fingers were broken in places and he had once been stabbed in the leg by Gravenheart who had been carrying a knife at the time to cut up Harry's loaf of bread. This was a recent wound which had left Harry only just able to manoeuvre across the floor.

For now, Harry had been an adequate prisoner, he did not resist daily punishment allowing Gravenheart to do what he pleased, and he never complained about the food or tried to escape. If he misbehaved during his time he would have been immediately escorted to Fudge himself who had taken refuge to working in the prison for most of the day. However, today was a different day, and Harry was now fully prepared to misbehave so he could do the inevitable; escape! By now he had been able accumulate five matches and by careful planning and observation was able to designate what to use each one for. Harry using what he could hear was able to map up something which was able to tell him the time and according the marks on the wall he had made using his finger-nail, it was close to Gravenheart cleaning out Harry's chamber-pot and that was when the fun began.

Harry shook his fringe out of his eyes before giving his glasses a quick wipe with part of his shirt before weakly sticking a couple of his broken fingers down the right pocket of his jeans to remove the five matches. He let them roll of his hand and onto the floor where he picked one up and clenched it tightly before pushing himself up onto his knees with a groan and sliding across to the chamber pot. He picked it up and slid back before placing it next to the cell door and taking hold of the match between his fingers. He then leaned against the stone wall and began to start sparking the match against it until it was eventually lit and Harry smiled in relief. In the distance he could Gravenheart's footsteps approaching so he quickly threw the match into the pot which set on fire. His waste was now alight, the smell was putrid and seemingly could have been smelt under the door, the direction in which the smoke went. Harry now heard Gravenheart bellow; "WHAT THE HELL?!"

The footsteps now became heavy as Gravenheart rushed to the cell door, his wand aloft, opening it with a flick making Harry jump backwards against the back wall of the cell. Gravenheart's large stature created a shadow over him, for the first time in light of the blaze his features became noticeable, dark lank hair and small darting eyes with muscly arms. His eyebrows stiffened in a bemused expression at first sight of the small fire, instead of getting rid of it he lifted his wand at Harry but by this time, Harry had now lit another match and launched it at Gravenheart. The latter dropped his wand which rolled towards Harry, in fright, the flames spontaneously spurted upwards onto him and soon enough Gravenheart was alight with fire. Harry dived forwards and grabbed the guard's wand.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Gravenheart's arms and legs snapped together and he collapses onto the ground near the chamber-pot, "SILENCIO!" Gravenheart was now silenced, he had now stopped screaming, "AGUAMENTI!" a sudden jet of water from the wand Harry held put out the flames on both the pot and the guard. But before the effects of the poorly performed freezing charm wore off, Harry bellowed; "INCARCEROUS!" and suddenly the guard was bound up in tight ropes. Harry then walked up to the guard who was beginning to move weakly now under his bonds, he tried to shout but of course the charm had worked and he was unable to. Harry stared at him for a moment before stepping over him and into the corridor. It was empty, for now anyway.

Harry immediately ignited another match and spun it towards to the door at the far end of the corridor before Harry shouted, Gravenheart's wand aloft, "Flamma patrocinium!" Suddenly the small flame erupted into a large see-through shield that covered the area between the two walls, the ceiling and floor. He smiled cheekily as he turned on his heel and kicked open the door beside his cell to reveal three heavily hooded prison guards who stood with their wands pointed at Harry's head. However, Harry was too quick and instantly whipped Gravenheart's wand at two of the guards screaming; "STUPEFY MAXIMA!" which sent them flying backwards. Harry personally then kicked the remaining shocked guard in the privates making him buckle onto his knees at Harry's waist. Harry grabbed him by the throat and his voice cracked with thirst as he spoke lowly.

"Tell me where me wand is or…" Harry stuck Gravenheart's wand at the wizard's throat. "I'll kill you."

"It's with the Minister, he's down on the ground floor!" the wizard whimpered.

"Thanks." Harry let go of the guard and allowed him to drop to the ground.

Harry then took a step forward and was set to stride up the corridor, identical to all the others when Harry out of the corner of his eye noticed the guard he had just held was pointing their wand at his back. Harry quickly turned round and with a flash of light he shot a non-verbal hex at the man's forehead knocking him over. Harry stomped forward and grabbed the wand off of the wizard and snapped it cleanly in two before throwing it away.

"Never try and strike a wizard from behind." Harry told him sternly before kicking him in the face knocking him out cold before stepping over his newly unconscious form and Harry started to trudge up the corridor. Eventually he had reached the stone, spiral staircase which he hurriedly jogged down as he heard in the distance the cry of some prisoners but mostly the anguish of newly awoken guards and others coming to aid them.

Harry soon had made his way all the way down to the bottom floor without any hassle as he just avoided a horde of wizard guards pile out from the top floor and attempt to decline, wands aloft. Once on the other side of the door Harry locked it quickly with Gravenheart's wand. He then turned on his heel to face Cornelius Fudge nose-to-nose who had his wand pressed into Harry's stomach.

"Move and I will kill you Potter." Fudge snarled, sparks flew from the tip of his wand.

"Try it." Harry spat back.

"I wish."

Then, as Fudge had a lapse of concentration by boring into Harry's eyes maliciously, Harry kneed Fudge in the stomach and twirled the wand in his direction booming; "STUPEFY!" The spell hit him full on in the head making him collapse to the ground releasing his wand so it was able to roll away.

Harry then jumped down and searched Fudge's robes until he was able to find his own wand, once he had it he stashed Gravenheart's into his jeans pocket and looked around him. The room he was in was empty, it was a small dark office where Fudge's numerous folders full to the brim of parchment were stored with bottles of ink and quills piled on top. Harry took a pitiful look at Fudge and noticed the bandages around the man's hands for the first time, realising he had no thumbs. Harry however had no time to wonder why and instead walked to either end of the room but found no door. Harry was completely bemused and started to look across the walls for any sign of a opening but found none. He then stood back and lifted his wand trying numerous incantations including Alohamora and even ranging up to the explosive Bombarda however all were inactive and useless. He also tried pleading with the door, pretending to be Fudge and asking for it to open however that didn't work either. How the hell did he get in or leave the room?! Harry thought to himself. No enchantment or incantation worked on its walls but then it struck Harry. Maybe, it only worked with Fudge's wand!

Harry then raced back over to the unconscious Fudge and grabbed his wand before saying; "ALOHAMORA!" Then suddenly Harry felt himself be flung forward into the wall and then sink into it, disappearing from the room and into the wall and then out again. Harry then landed feet first out on the other side of the wall breathing a huge sigh of relief after being forced through the wall. He was now at the entrance/exit to the prison where two wizard guards stood stock still outwards to the world, Harry now had two wands, one in each hand and another in his pocket. He felt powerful and proved this when he shouted; "Oi! You two!"

Immediately the guards turned on their heels, their wands aloft ready to strike when Harry bellowed; "REDUCTO!" And with the combined force of two wands the pair in front of him were thrown backwards onto the ground. Harry then rushed forwards and jumped over the bodies of the guards and he discovered that he was on the edge of the prison fortress. His feet now hung over the edge of some pebbled rock, only a few feet away from the deep sea below. Harry then turned to look behind him as he heard the hubbub of oncoming guards coming towards him, he saw one or two of them burst out from nowhere behind him and that's when he did it. He jumped into the air, falling into the sea screaming the incantation for the bubble-head charm as the wizard guards hung on the edge of the fortress seeing the water ripple with the force of Harry's body.

Noon had now passed and the Weasleys and Hermione had now finished their lunch when Ginny, Ron and Hermione returned to Burrow garden. They were now sat back in their chairs having a casual chat when they heard something.

"Did you just hear something?" Ron asked them.

"I thought I did. It was a voice. Close by." Hermione agreed with him curiously.

"It sounded familiar." Ginny whispered.

"Let me in!" the voice seemed nearby but it was muffled, however it did sound distinctive.

"They're saying; let me in?" Hermione said getting onto her feet, unsheathing her wand.

"I know. But where's it coming from?" Ginny quizzed them, copying Hermione.

Ron, his wand fully aloft and stood up too pointed with his wand over to his left.

"It's Harry! Let me in!" the voice was slightly clearer now and more recognisable, it was Harry!

"HARRY!" Ginny cried turning towards where Ron had pointed and with a simple flick of the wrist, Hermione lowered the defences of the Burrow allowing Harry to appear and crash onto the grass.

Ginny immediately ran forward whereas the other two stood aback as Ginny turned over Harry who was water-logged and dripping wet again. He gave his girlfriend a weak smile.

"Harry! How did you get out?!" Ginny exclaimed.

"I'll explain later but right now, I think they're on my tail!" Harry said getting onto his feet and taking both his own and Fudge's aloft and standing aback from where the defences had been broken.

"Harry, shouldn't we rebuilt that part of the defences?!" Hermione quizzed him, paranoid.

"No! I've had enough of all of this! On the way here I was able to get in touch with some people! They're going to sort this all out once we de-Imperiuse Fudge…"

"Fudge is coming here?! But why would he?! Wouldn't he send his men in?!" Ron shouted.

"Fudge will want me himself but they'll be others on the perimeter. I've got his wand see!" Harry brandished Fudge's wand proudly, gritting his teeth as he pointed both the wands towards the gap in the defences where he came through.

Soon enough, with a pop, out of nowhere, appeared Cornelius Fudge himself, evidently using another's wand as he had one aloft in his left hand, prepared to fire. Once he landed he strode through into the Weasley garden fully and was able to lift his wand menacingly, ready to strike.

"CRUCI…!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Harry was too quick for him, and immediately the wand in Fudge's hand went askew onto the grass but before Fudge could retrieve Harry shot a non-verbal hex at Fudge's shoulder ricocheting him to the ground. Harry then rushed forwards and placed a foot on his chest before directing his wand between Fudge's eyes as the Minister attempted to escape, struggling to breathe under the weight of Harry's trainer. Then, Harry closed his eyes and hoped for the best as he incanted; "IMPERIO!"

Fudge's eyes then became dazed and unfocused, his mouth hung agape and he seemed weary, then he took a deep, long breath and was soon enough looking normal again. His eyes were set however they were now fixed in a worried, bemused position as he looked up at Harry who had his wand lift from Fudge's temple, before allowing him to stand back up. Fudge seemed unsteady on his feet and maybe a little dazed still when Harry gave him back his wand to the amazement of the three behind him, in the distance Harry heard the other Weasleys packing out of the back door.

"Mr Fudge?" Harry asked Fudge calmly, slightly breathless.

Fudge blinked in the sunlight and abruptly seemed more alert, he whipped round to Harry with a pitiful expression as he muttered; "I'm sorry…"

Fudge then was teetering on the edge of collapsing when Harry rushed forward and held him up, "It's okay…it's not your fault…"

"But it is…I gave in to his demands…I placed you in prison for all that time…what you've gone through…what this entire country's gone through is my fault…I should of resisted more…why should I have let myself be Imperiused by such a man…"

"This is not your fault," Harry told him sternly, "This is the work of Jeremiah McKinnon. No one else. You couldn't of stopped him but everything's okay now…others have agreed to take over from you and resolve everything that happened…if people don't…forgive you…tell them, tell them that Harry Potter did." Harry patted Fudge on the shoulder reassuringly, "This is what this is now. Me, forgiving you. Go and sit down, everything's going to be fine."

Fudge nodded weakly before slowly making his way over to the deck chairs in the garden which he sat down on one of, Harry then turned to the other three.

"Harry, who are these others?" Hermione questioned him.

Then, on either side of Harry Apparated both Kingsley Shacklebolt and Percy Weasley, their wands aloft and looking solemn, once they appeared they turned immediately to Harry.

"PERCY!" Mrs Weasley cried from afar. The others stood stock still, shocked from the sight of their beloved brother and son for the first time at the Burrow for a good few years.

"Harry, is Fudge de-Imperiused?" Kingsley enquired hastily.

"Yes, just now. He's remembered everything and apologises. I've sat him down for now and promised things are going to be okay."

"They will be," Percy began, "We've mobilised a alliance of both our party's more qualified wizards to breach the Ministry walls and set a combined de-Imperius curse on the entire building. Soon enough everyone will realise the truth about what's been going on. As soon as the Wizengamot have been returned to their normal state our best team will move in and establish confirmation of a coalition of the ME & FRED parties to take control of the Ministry of Magic. Work will then restart on finding Jeremiah McKinnon and his aliases."

"Sounds like a good plan. It's a good job I found you two." Harry muttered.

"Yes it is. We've also got some people doing the same job at Azkaban and Nurmenguard returning the guards back to normal, including getting rid of the ones on the boundaries of this house. Eventually our return to normal will have a domino effect on any other countries' governments that have been influenced by McKinnon."

"Fantastic. Then that's sorted then. Everything's restored?" Harry asked them both.

"It seems so, we just we'd inform you of what was happening as we've got to go now Harry, there's a lot of mess in Fudge's wake." Percy stated.

"That's true. We must go Harry, we're sorry we can't stay any longer," Kingsley explained before gesturing to Percy, "Best go and get Fudge."

Percy nodded before ambling his way over to the now ex-Minister for Magic and took hold of his arm before manoeuvring carefully back to the huddle in the garden. The Weasleys at the back door looked open Percy sadly.

"I'm sorry…mum. Dad. But I have to go," Percy called over to them causing Mrs Weasley to whimper and tear up, "I'll try my best to visit but this is why I've been gone, to sort out this mess we're living in. I cannot stand to see the misery of this country any longer."

Mr Weasley nodded in agreement as Kingsley took hold of Fudge's other arm and give a little bow to Harry, "By the way Harry…you look dreadful."

"Thanks Kingsley, I'll remember that." Harry laughed.

"Bye Harry." Percy added smiling towards the members of his family before gradually turning on his heel with the other two and disappearing into the air. They had Disapparated.

By the next day everything returned back to normal. Harry was able to give himself a deep, thorough cleanse with both bath water and his wand, brushing his teeth, shaving off his stubble and clearing up some of his various wounds as well as throwing away his clothes that'd he'd been wearing for the past month and a half. The enchantments surrounding the Burrow were now all lifted allowing Mrs Weasley and Fleur to venture out and go shopping for food and drink from the local village. The privileges given to the Death Eater prisoners of Azkaban and Nurmenguard were now abolished and they were placed back in their secure holding cells. The search for McKinnon, Draco and Goyle was now back on and more thorough than ever. Kingsley and Percy now lead a new coalition government which saw the Ministry begin to repair itself with every inch of both Voldemort's and Fudge's reign be removed. The posters, the banners, the speakers, all of those in the streets and in the villages of the wizarding were taken down and destroyed. Everything was going well and in Harry's opinion according to the Evening Prophet (which Rita Skeeter had been fired from and re-replaced with Xenophilius Lovegood), things were going to get better.

'DEATH EATERS' EXECUTION CONFIRMED'

The large banner headline was followed by various images of the currently imprisoned Death Eaters with their names being the captions underneath. The article then followed from there and onto the next couple of pages;

_'After the heroic escapade from Azkaban Prison, the unlawfully imprisoned Harry Potter was able to get into contact with former Ministerial candidates Kingsley Shacklebolt and Percy Weasley to sort out the current government crisis. Now, post two months of pro-McKinnon politics, the propaganda and crude laws, a new coalition government has been allowed to be formed and take over the Ministry. In our special report last night and early this morning we focused on how Fudge's regime is being eradicated and how the Ministry are back onto ending the past. Now, it has been confirmed earlier today that the Wizengamot have come upon a decision on what to do with the Death Eaters, declining a public decision. It has now been confirmed that the surviving Death Eaters currently imprisoned at both Azkaban and Nurmenguard will be sentenced to Wizard's Execution via the reformed Auror Office. The Death Eaters will be shipped down to Agri Pene fields, originally used for said executions when they were around hundreds of years ago. There the bounded criminals will be lined up and be killed by the Avada Kedavra curse with given permission by the Minister and his vice (Shacklebolt and Weasley). The event is exclusively private and only selected guests will be allowed to watch the execution and rumour is Harry Potter himself will be invited to watch the men die. However this is not confirmed but the date for the event is. The date for the execution will be Halloween Night on the Thirty-First of October. No objections have been raised against the decision for execution and so we all await the day when this prolonged war will finally end with the death of You Know Who's closest._

_LONG LIVE HARRY POTTER!_

_Written by Xenophilius Lovegood, returning editor._

Harry smiled. The Death Eaters were set to be rid of, and he was glad.

"Harry?" Harry and Ginny were sat together in the lounge, her head in his lap as he rolled up the Evening Prophet, a large grin on his face before placing the paper on the side of the sofa. Ginny had now mentioned his name in order to gain his attention.

"Yes?!" he enquired happily.

"You're smiling. You've not smiled for a while. I love your smiles."

"It's the Death Eaters. They're going!" Harry exclaimed joyfully, running his fingers through Ginny's hair.

"Ah, the executions?"

"Exactly. This it Ginny! This is the end! The war's over!" Harry took hold of her head and kissed her full on the lips, beaming from ear to ear, before rubbing his hands excitedly.

"I know, it's fantastic isn't it?"

"Yes, yes it is!"

Harry leant back and grinned broadly, still running his fingers through Ginny's hair softly.

"Harry, this just came." Ron had entered the living room, ignoring the fact his best friend and sister were cuddled up together, he tosses Harry a rolled up piece of parchment. Harry immediately unrolled it looking slightly less joyful but more sombre as he began to read what the parchment was embossed with. In curly, black handwriting the letter read the following;

_'Dear Harry,_

_ It is my solemn duty on behalf of the Wizengamot Court of the Ministry of Magic to cordially invite you as the guest of honour to the execution of the surviving followers of He Who Must Not Be Named. The executions will be performed on Agri Pene fields in the South Welsh countryside away from the prying eyes of the magical media and the general public. The executions will begin from nine o'clock sharp in the morning, and a celebratory luncheon will follow at eleven after the bodies are incinerated in a Fiend Fyre. However, if you do not want to attend the event the Ministry itself will respect your decision not to._

_Yours sincerely,_

_ Kingsley Shacklebolt – Minister for Magic.'_

"What did it say?"

"You're coming with me. All of you. I'm not going alone." Harry stated quickly, re-rolling the parchment back up and placing it on the coffee table.

"Harry…? What's wrong…?" Ginny took hold of his hand.

"What was I thinking?" Harry looked into the distance, feeling sorry for himself.

"Harry…?" Ron joined in questioning him.

"I was happy, smiling but I never thought of it like this…" Harry uttered solemnly, "They're going to kill them…burn them…they want me to watch…to celebrate…"

"But they're Death Eaters. They killed for nothing. Don't you forget that! Sirius, Tonks, Remus, Fred…! Don't you dare feel sympathetic!" Ron told him angrily.

"I'm not it's just…how can you…lunch?! Celebratory?! What?! I don't understand! These are peoples' lives ending! Yes, they're evil! Yes, they deserve it but to make so much fun out of it? Or try?! It's sick! This should be done privately! No 'guests'!" Harry slammed his fist on the arm of the sofa, Ginny sat bolt up and turned worriedly towards him.

"Harry, calm down…" she whispered to him.

"No! I can't! It's…it's sick!"

She took hold of his arm, "Harry, you've got to go."  
"No! Didn't you hear me?!"

"Listen to me!" she stared at him, "You haven't got a choice! These people killed your friends for nothing! They're heartless and cold and this punishment has been waiting for them for a long time coming. Now…you're going to go, and you're going to watch the life in their eyes fade out. I'm going to be there, holding your hand and you're not going to move. You'll watch the whole thing."

"I-I-I…"

"Harry," she turned his head so that he was facing her, "promise me you'll go through with this."

"I promise." Harry whispered inaudibly.

"Do you swear? Swear on Teddy's life."

"I swear."

Ginny then leant forwards and kissed him lightly on the forehead as Harry leant back and pondered over the agreement he had just made, swearing on his godson's life. Harry saw Ron leave the room as he turned towards the cot behind the sofa, snuggled in there was Teddy Lupin who had been safe and sound during the whole time. Harry whispered to him; "A promise is promise…"


	17. Secrets Unfold

Sat with their backs to the rest of the forest, on a wooden bench off the beaten track near Aberdeen, Jeremiah McKinnon, Draco Malfoy and Gregory Goyle sat huddled in conversation facing a river, early morning the day after.

"Draco, Gregory…I'm sorry." Jeremiah stated blandly, the conversation about Fudge's downfall from power between Draco and Goyle had fizzled out.

"Pardon?" Draco hiccoughed, turning rapidly towards McKinnon who sat on the left hand-side of the rickety bench.

"I've been keeping something to myself for a while now which I haven't shared with you. However, it was of greatest importance and curio that I daren't mention anything till I properly considered through." McKinnon apologised briefly.

"I'm confused. What've you been keeping secret?" Goyle quizzed him, eyebrows raised.

"There was something I discovered whilst on my visit to Azkaban a few weeks previous to the end of Fudge's reign. From then that's the reason for my disappearances from you two, I've been digging into the information I found out." McKinnon explained.

"What is it that you discovered?" Malfoy asked him, straight-to-the-point.

"I immediately decided to act upon my own instincts and visit your father and Yaxley in Azkaban when I came across some intriguing news in a certain prison guard's report of one of their conversations. Yaxley told me some interesting things. However things have changed and I've come across something better than his original thoughts."

"What is it that Yaxley told you?" Goyle, getting anxious, rapped his knees.

"Yaxley was deeply involved with the workings of the Ministry last year and according to him he was able to come across snippets of curious information concerning the Dark Lord."

"What?!" Draco and Goyle chorused bemusedly.

"During the course of the Dark Lord's reign apparently our master cornered Gellert Grindelwald, Gregorovitch and Ollivander in order to find a certain wand that had been in possession of many wizards. Related supposedly to the Tale of the Three Brothers from Beedle the Bard," McKinnon began, "Yaxley was unable to give me any more information on the matter but on researching it appears the 'elder' wand as it was called was the most powerful wand in the world. However records of it being in use were lost through the ages and there hasn't been a recorded sighting of the wand for hundreds of years. Yaxley assumed it'd be helpful to us to have such a powerful wand but what he doesn't know is that it would be impossible to find even if it did exist plus it could have been destroyed explaining the end of records."

Draco and Goyle's eyes were fixed in a shocked expression as McKinnon took a pause for breath before continuing, "So, I decided to leave that investigation alone and reverted back to the Tale of the Three Brothers for inspiration of something we could find to help us with our mission the bring back the Death Eaters and our lord. The Invisibility cloak, if you know the story, another object created by Death, seemed useless to me so then I looked upon the Resurrection Stone. Then I paused my thoughts and thought of Harry Potter," McKinnon's fists clenched in anger at the mention of that name, "How did he survive? He was killed by the Avada Kedavra curse, your mother Draco, told me how she saw him drop dead and then when she checked his body he was still alive. Supposedly whoever owns all three of the Deathly Hallows becomes the master of death. Harry Potter mastered death. He also allegedly, according to you, owns an invisibility cloak, one of the objects. Potter looked for objects that damaged our lord and before the war Albus Dumbledore had been seen ill from breaking a stone ring that had once belonged to our master's grandfather. The ring had a stone within it which Dumbledore may of kept and passed onto Potter. That's two objects and somehow he had the wand and somehow it's gone but I do not wish to find that or the cloak as I don't want to be master of death. I just want the dead to be living."

"Potter escaped during the second battle of Hogwarts without being seen and something about a transition of a certain wand was mentioned by Narcissa at the last stand. That's the cloak and the wand put at the scene of Potter's survival which means he must have had the Stone there too. The cloak's probably been taken home with Potter and the wand destroyed, so where's the stone? Where did Potter die?!" McKinnon sighed excitedly, his eyes whizzing around crazily as he held his arms open.

"The Forbidden Forest…" Draco muttered.

"Exactly! The Resurrection Stone lies somewhere near the Dark Lord's camp in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts!" McKinnon laughed hysterically.

"You mentioned about bringing back the dead. You want the Stone? You plan to bring back the Dark Lord and his followers using it?!" Draco, exasperated, looked at McKinnon in bemusement.

"Congratulations…"

"But according to the Tale, the stone couldn't resurrect but just bring back something like a ghost temporarily that the person thought of." Draco added, Goyle nodded.

"There are theories out there," McKinnon gestured away from them with his index finger, "Concerning the Stone…theoretical dark magic that sees exploitation of the Stone so it can bring back the dead in body one more time."

"Who on earth came up with such things?"

"Lots of wizards…Ollivander and Gregorovitch the wandmakers and Grindelwald, the darkest wizard of his generation… but also Dumbledore himself…during Fudge's reign I was able to raid the Headmaster's Office and there I found deep down in the archives, doodles, theories, equations…ways on how to exploit the Deathly Hallows. According to the biography by Rita Skeeter, Dumbledore and Grindelwald were in cohorts concerning some dark magic…the Hallows…I could tell, the symbol was in one of Dumbledore's letters to Grindelwald…And once I saw those documents in his old office I knew it was all true and what the next step was…" McKinnon grinned manically.

McKinnon unsheathed Lucius' wand from inside his robes and held it aloft.

"My father's wand?! The one we forced Ollivander to make! How did you get it?!" Draco demanded.

"I needed a new wand, I was tired of my previous one." McKinnon twirled it between his fingers.

"We don't see you for weeks and when you turn up you have that!" Draco spat, "You can only master it if you defeated him for it! How did you win this?! Did you kill my father?!"

"No. I merely stole it. All wands obey to me no matter of ownership. Your father is totally alive and he misses you." McKinnon stopped twirling the wand and eyed Draco seriously and honestly.

"Right…" Draco fought back some tears in his eyes.

"Now, here is our problem," McKinnon started solemnly now, "The Ministry know I've been on Hogwarts premises and according to Fudge they were in the early stages of developing plans to rebuild the school which will restart soon. Also, Shacklebolt and Weasley have already implemented a team of Aurors on the perimeter to guard the grounds so it'd be impossible to enter just the three of us."

"What are you saying?" Goyle asked him.

"We break out the other Death Eaters."

"How do you expect to do that?" Draco blurted out.

McKinnon twirled Lucius' wand once again as a folded up copy of the Evening Prophet from the previous night floated out of McKinnon's robes. He then stashed away his new wand and took hold of the newspaper, unfolded it and showed the front cover to the other two who took it off him and rifled through the pages.

"Agri Pene fields, Halloween night…we go there and stop the execution…if we're lucky Potter might be there and we can kill him. Then we're right on track to break into Hogwarts, get the stone and kick off the resurrection party!"

The morning after the revelation about the Death Eater's future had been announced in the Evening Prophet, Harry and Ginny could be found once again snuggling on the sofa. Harry, this time, was in Ginny's lap, and she woke up first before gently stroking his face and hair, planting a light kiss on his forehead. He gradually opened his eyes drearily, still tired, he gave a small smile to his girlfriend who spoke to him; "Morning sexy."

"Hey…" Harry uttered inaudibly, sitting up as Ginny placed her head on his shoulder and held his arm, "Do you mind me saying you look beautiful this morning…" Harry grinned, rubbing nose to nose with Ginny.

"Cut it love birds!" laughed Hermione as she waltzed into the room fully dressed, finishing the rest of a slice of toast before setting down next to Harry, she had a wide smile on her face. She then withdrew a piece of parchment from her jeans pocket and showed it to them. Harry read aloud the following;

_'Dear Miss Hermione Jean Granger,_

_ It is my duty to inform you personally that a duo of two of our best Aurors confirmed a sighting of your parents at Sydney Opera House. Soon enough, we shall move a team in to pin-point their exact living quarters and reverse the Obliviation charm on them._

_ Your dearly, Lachlan Harrison Angus Grabbleforn – Minister for Australian Magic.'_

"They've nearly found your parents?!" Harry exclaimed as Hermione wrapped both arms around him and giggled with excitement at the prospect of seeing her mother and father again.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" she unwrapped her arms from Harry, "They've nearly tracked them down! Soon enough they'll be home! Ooh I've got to wake Ron and tell him the news!" Hermione shrieked happily before jumping up and rocketing upstairs.

"Wow. It's happening. Things are becoming normal." Ginny sighed.

"I love this," Harry turned to her, "Good things are happening now! Voldemort's gone! The Death Eaters are on their way with McKinnon, Draco and Goyle! I've got my godson with me! Hermione's parents are returning! And I fall to sleep and wake up seeing your face…" his mouth drooped as he gazed at Ginny.

"Harry, I've been meaning to tell you…" she took a tight grip of his hand and leant forwards, "Something I've always wanted to say…"

"What is it…?"

"Harry Potter, I lo…"

"Check this out!" George had bounded into the room now, a new edition of the Daily Prophet in his hand, he tossed it quickly to Harry who unfurled it with an apologetic look at Ginny.

"What the…?! Wait! No! I know her! She was…but…what?!"

"Harry what's up?" Ginny asked him as he stared in disbelief at the front cover.

There lay in the middle of the front cover a large moving image of a teenage girl laughing hysterically flinging her wand in numerous directions. It was the girl Harry had seen been released from Azkaban on the day of his arrival. The banner headline read; 'TEENAGE WITCH KILLS & RECRUITS!'

"That girl. On the day I went to Azkaban she was being released, she'd been inside for hurting Muggle borns and half-bloods!" Harry exclaimed rustling the paper with shaky bemusement. Harry looked upon the following article;

_'In the small hours of this morning, a fifteen year-old witch identified by the Ministry of Magic to be recently released Muggle Born torturer; Yvonna "Onya" Lewis. She had been released under order from Cornelius Fudge in the middle of September on the same day Harry Potter was sentenced falsely to the same prison; Azkaban. Apparently this morning Lewis forced her way through into a typical wizarding village bar where she demanded a legion of followers to help her. In return, many greeted her with disrespect, she repaid them with the Killing Curse which was able to end the lives of nineteen dark wizards. Rumour is she may join the forces of McKinnon, Malfoy and Goyle with some back-up as she was able to gain the attention of several pro-You Know Who supporters whilst in the building. She then exited the village and as a small team they Disapparated, the Ministry have now begun to try and locate Lewis and her team just alike their search for McKinnon.'_

"Who the hell is she? She's fifteen and she's killing and recruiting and for what? What does she hope for? What's her purpose?" Ginny muttered in disgust.

"I've absolutely no idea. I didn't recognise her on first sight when I saw her but I assume she went to Hogwarts. She should be in fifth year right now. She shouldn't be out there murdering the innocent, gathering the evil, in order to do something which we don't even know yet." Harry trailed on.

"What does that matter though Harry? What are you talking about?"

"It's my fault!" Harry threw the newspaper aside hastily, "If I'd sacrificed myself straight from the off that school wouldn't be in tatters, she'd be in it, learning, happy, not out there in the wilderness we've made!"

"Wilderness? The world we live in now is better than the one previously Harry." Ginny told him sternly.

"No, no it isn't. Before all of this, I was happy." Harry took hold of Ginny's hand and shook slightly, "Yes, we lived in fear for years that one day I'd be gone however we had each other, everyone was alive and happy. Dumbledore, Sirius, Tonks, Mad-Eye, Remus, Dobby, Fred…the world we live in now is worse than ever before. Post war, things couldn't get any worse. This is our lowest ebb."

George had been looking upon both Harry and his sister with pitiful looks before shaking his head and striding out of the room, Harry who watched his feet leave the doorway turned back to Ginny who was now so very close to him.

"This is worse is it? If it wasn't for that war we wouldn't be here right now… me and you…something terrible has brought something I've always wanted…this life is now better." Ginny explained, gripping his hands.

"Yes, we're together. Yes, I'm at home now. I've got my friends. Voldemort's dead however…there is one man out there who is not helping the recovery. People we have loved are dead, people who could have been saved have been destroyed…the government's a mess, Hogwarts is dead and my life as well as everyone under this roof is under threat once more. And more and more people are being roped into this revenge, no matter how much I hate it. Eventually, one day soon, a cloud will come over this family and lightning will strike, and someone will be struck." Harry had tears at the back of his eyes which urged to get forward and release.

"Don't you dare think about that Harry Potter. These people are just upset, and they want some revenge, let them try. They will fail. The Death Eaters are set to be executed, the whole country now has its eyes peeled for anyone who tries anything to hurt you. Now…" Ginny shuddered slightly, "Voldemort's dead, evil has gone, all that is left is amateurs and pretenders who want a bit of glory. The threat against our lives ended with the fall of the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself. Evil exists no more."

"Nothing ends, Ginny. The darkness is returning. Nobody can stop it." Harry nodded.

"No Harry. No! NO!"

"Nothing ever ends. It just restarts and becomes stronger. My life has taught me that. First time Voldemort was at peak he returned and was stronger than ever, what's to say an evil I've never fought comes along stronger than anything I've ever faced. Then that's my final hour, my last day…I've died twice…if there's such thing as luck it'll run out one day…let's just hope it's not soon."

Ginny was now crying, she let her head roll onto Harry's shoulder as he stroked her hair gently, "Whatever happens Ginny, I won't let him get to you…If McKinnon ever tries, ever, I will kill him…I will kill him with my bare hands…do you understand that? Whatever happens I will be there for you, to protect you and if I fail in my duty then forget me because I won't be worth ten of you."

"H-H-Harry…H-H-Harry…I…I…" Ginny whimpered.

"You don't mean it, not now, I don't deserve you right now, I've not been here and until I earn you, you will not try to tell me that because you can't possibly after what I've done. Now forget it, there's things we have to do…"

"No…let me say it…"

"I can't accept it yet, not now…"

"Listen to me please…Harry…"

Harry stood up as Ron and Hermione entered the room and spotted Ginny sobbing into the back of the sofa, Harry had been able to resist, his eyes were red and blotchy as Ron demanded; "What's wrong with Ginny?"

"Nothing, don't ask." Harry uttered.

"What happened Harry?" Hermione asked him gently as Ron stared at him avidly.

"Nothing, everything's fine," Harry explained afore gesturing to the askew newspaper lay on the carpet, "Read that. Things are happening. I'll explain later…" Harry took a fleeting glimpse at Ginny who had revealed her face and stared at his back as he exited the living room allowing Ron and Hermione to pick up the paper and comfort Ginny.

"You know full well what she wanted to say…why the heck did you do that to her?"

Ron and Harry had taken seats in the back-garden that evening following on from tea at the double-table. Ron had taken his best friend out to confront him about him about Ginny as Harry had deliberately avoided the topic when informing Ron and Hermione of his information on Onya Lewis.

"Didn't she tell you?" Harry snapped back, "I'm not ready for her to admit it yet. I don't deserve her…I need to work to get her…she's my girlfriend but that word cannot be mentioned just yet on her behalf. I…I…you know…her…but…she can't…me…do you not understand?"

"I…I don't know what to say…you…I understand you're point but she truly does you know? Honestly, it's been noticeable for years, more noticeable since you first kissed…now…she talked to me and Hermione for hours…while you were in our room…she spilt her heart out detailing every feeling, every little thing that buzzed about her head about you…she's my sister. I'm her brother. It's my job to protect her."

"I'm sorry but…" Harry tried to explain.

Ron cut across him, "You're paranoid. You're worried. I respect that. It's just you never talk…you keep yourself so wrapped up…there's so many things I'd love to talk to you about…we're best friends, we should trust each other enough by now to tell each other everything. No matter how awkward." Ron smiled at Harry.

"I've got no words," Harry muttered, "There's nothing I could possibly use to describe what's in my head right now…"

"It's just three words Harry. Say them to her. Then I'll be able to compute what you want to say."

"Not yet. I'm not ready. We've got a fight on our hands first. Once we deal with that…then…then I'll be ready…" Harry assured his best friend.

"What fight Harry? I don't understand. The war's over."

"Not just yet. There's one last stand." Harry told him.

"Who against Harry? McKinnon? Draco? Onya? Because I think it's yourself."

"Myself? W-What are you talking about?!"

"You've got things to resolve. This last stand is just picking up the pieces because there's no real threat out there Harry." Ron told him sternly.

"We have no idea what any of them are capable of! Anything could happen…" Ron shook his head at Harry before getting to his feet and trudging back into the Burrow kitchen leaving Harry under the sinking sun alone as he turned to look upon the house. In one of the windows in her bedroom, sat Ginny, she spotted him looking at her, and for a moment they exchanged a long glance, weak smiles grew on their faces. Then from the distance Harry noticed Ginny's door open to reveal Hermione, Ginny spun back round on her bed as Harry looked back up at the sky, the moment's reconciliation with his girlfriend had been ruined.

In a short, pitch-black alleyway cut off from the suburban streets on the outside of Omagh in Ireland, it was now approaching the witching hour when leant against the brick wall was Draco Malfoy, wand against his side, knee up and hood down. At the bottom of the alleyway from the streetlamps illuminated the shape of a teenage girl, which after her hood was pulled down, revealed to be Onya Lewis who hummed to herself drearily as he traipsed down the alleyway. Until she reached Draco she was grinning, wand stashed away in her robes, then Draco plucked up the courage and coughed; "Onya?"

Onya stopped dead just a couple of steps in front of Draco who dropped his foot and stood up properly as Onya spun around, face now set in thought as Draco pulled down his hood and shook his white fringe out of his eyes.

"Draco Malfoy?!" Onya squealed excitedly as Draco put a finger to his lips and ushered her to come closer.

"Quiet." He whispered.

"How did you find me? The Prophet never mentioned my whereabouts in case people got frightened…"

"We weren't far away…the Muggles were going mad…we soon realised what had happened the Prophet just confirmed it…McKinnon sent me here to confront you." Draco now took a step forwards toward Onya and placed his wand against her ribs.

"What exactly do you want Draco?" she simpered softly.

"What are you playing at? What's your game?" Draco asked her quickly.

"I hate Muggles, Mudbloods and half-bloods! My mission is to join the Death Eaters!" Onya told him.

"You killed those people to make an impression? So you could join us?"

"No. I do not wish to join you and McKinnon. I wish to break out your mother and the rest of them so to wreak revenge on those who vanquished the Dark Lord!"

Draco laughed, "You were in Ravenclaw weren't you? I remember you…Onya…half-blood…you call yourself a follower of him?! You're a disgrace…" he spat upon the ground near her feet.

"N'aww…aren't you cute? Trying to be all threatening? The Sorting Hat makes mistakes, I regret my own blood-type but wasn't the Dark Lord half-blood himself? You fail Draco. I win. I'm a Slytherin at heart, I'm actually an admirer of your mother's."

"My mother?"

"Oh, you are Narcissa's son right? I expected a lot more…next! Ha, ha, such a disappointment. The underdog, your mum, she was better than her sister. I respect her. I want her free just as much as you Draco…." Onya leaned in closer to Draco so that they were only inches away from one another's faces.

"What are you trying to say?" Draco attempted to avert her eye-contact, "If you want the Death Eaters why create a gang of your own?"

"You don't surely think you could handle the Ministry on your own with McKinnon and Goyle…you'd be killed in an instant! You need back-up!" Onya exclaimed.

"How do you know we want them out?"

"It's obvious. Just let me help you." She offered him a hand.

"McKinnon would never agree." Draco told her.

"We don't need McKinnon, Draco. Why don't you join me and my new friends? Help me save your mum and dad! Leave that failed McKinnon with Goyle alone, join me and do the right thing! So then you can have your revenge on Harry Potter!" Onya assured him, eyes wide with anticipation.

"But he'll kill me…"

"He's one man Draco. We are many. He has no chance." Onya eyed the wand which was being dragged slightly away from her ribs.

"That's true. You've killed many alone too. You're different…" Draco had been drawn into Onya's schemes.

"I killed eleven people last night. With others behind me what damage can Jeremiah McKinnon, the failed Death Eater, do to you?"

"Nothing."

"Join me then." Her hand was still aloft, Draco seized it and shook it calmly.

"I know things." After a moment of silence Draco said this sharply leaving Onya perturbed.

"Tell me them." Onya instructed as Draco released the wand and both of them met nose to nose.

"I harbour secrets that could bring the others back…but I need to return to McKinnon to get everything we need to know so we can plan." Draco told her.

Now smiling, Onya said; "Before you disappear into the night tell me what it consists of?"

"McKinnon has detailed notes on how to manipulate one of the Deathly Hallows to bring back the Dark Lord and his followers." Draco left Onya open-mouthed.

"Do whatever you can. Bring those plans to me and tell me everything, then we shall leave it aside as we focus on Halloween night and things we can do to get ourselves heard in the meantime." Onya simpered again.

"Don't worry I will. I best head off then…but you assure my safety?"

"Definitely."

"Give me something in return for your promise so I can believe you."

Onya took him by the back of the neck and kissed him full on the mouth before letting him go, eyes wide open in surprise.

"Hurry…time is of the essence albino-boy…" she winked as he flung his hood back up and wand aloft span on his heel, Disapparating into the cold night. Onya was left alone to continue making her way down the alleyway however now she did it skipping and humming even louder and happily, ignoring how out of tune she was.


	18. Estrangement And Deception

Things at the Burrow were awkward for the next few days because of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Ever since Ron's rant at Harry in the garden the par of them barely exchanged words day to day. When they did it usually consisted of "sorry", "excuse me" and "thanks". Though Hermione was dating Ron she still sided with Harry and understood his terms which left the couple now only sharing short, quiet conversations. Ron tried to ignore the fact that Hermione was in regular correspondence with Harry and they did not argue. Harry and Hermione now took morning walks together where they expressed their thoughts about the previous day's awkwardness. Ignoring their estrangements with their partner the pair still talked normally like nothing had happened, sharing an occasional laugh. However, the most awkward relationship at the moment was that between Harry and Ginny. The only kind of conversation they managed before Ron rudely interrupted wanting a private chat with his sister was "good morning". Two into the estrangement Harry had tried mouthing something to Ginny ("I'm sorry") but again her brother interfered. Later to be told in private, overheard by Harry, by Hermione instructing her boyfriend to lay off Harry and Ginny.

The rest of the Weasleys knew about these problems however they dared not intervene except the odd occasions when Ginny and Ron's elder brothers talked to Harry aside. Three days in Charlie took him away from after dinner drinks and listened keenly to Harry only nodding and keeping solemn. This was alike the reaction of Bill later that night who whispered what he knew to Fleur who shook her head and snapped at Ron who was playing Exploding Snap alone. Then, after hearing whispers between Charlie and Bill, George checked with Harry for confirmation he punched Ron in the jaw so he split his lip. Ron shrugged and hid in his room for the remainder of the day. Mr and Mrs Weasley knew of the teenagers' estrangements but didn't intervene as they had problems of their own.

Two days into the estrangement, according to a letter received by Ginny's parents, Dromeda Tonks; Teddy's grandmother was now well enough to take full custody of Harry's godson. Dromeda was set to arrive at the Burrow personally the night before Halloween executions and with Side Along Apparition take Teddy safely to the Tonks' home. Mrs Weasley was now hurrying to make the house look respectable enough for Narcissa Malfoy's sister's arrival. Mr Weasley however was deeply involved in the paperwork side of things. This concerned the transfer. Harry often saw Ron's dad scurrying around the house signing official Ministry documents and Child Service letters which he snapped many a will getting bemused at the legislations and laws of the new land. Though Harry was sad to see his godson depart he knew it was for the best. The Weasleys were already out of space and full of their own problems that Harry was glad to see one addition disappear.

It was now the thirtieth of October and yet again Harry had crashed on the sofa however this time he was alone in his slumber. Harry woke up extremely groggy that morning considering the strength of the cider he had sneakily drunk he had still awaken just after the crack of dawn. Through blurred eyes he saw through the crack in his eyelids, four dark silhouettes. One was slightly hunched and holding another whose shadows looked like a cradle with what looked like a baby inside. The other two were of a man and a woman, as the one holding the cradle disappeared with a _pop. _Harry then yawned and rubbed his eyes before sticking his glasses back on his face looking around. The two other figures were revealed to be that of Mr and Mrs Weasley caused Harry to stash the numerous empty bottles underneath the sofa, paranoid. It was then that Ron's parents noticed that he was awake, Mrs Weasley spoke first rubbing the tear marks off her face.

"We should of woken you. But we thought it'd be best to leave you to sleep. It was better that way."

"What on earth are you going on about Mrs Weasley?" Harry asked her hoarsely.

"You just missed Dromeda." Mr Weasley stated solemnly. This was when Harry realised that Tonks' mother had literally just Disapparated with his godson; Teddy in his cradle.

"I thought she wasn't coming until later on?"

"She decided to come earlier. He's gone, Teddy, she's taken him to live with her." Mrs Weasley sobbed

"But…" Harry choked slightly, his throat felt like it was blocked with a lump of ice, tears stung his eyes, "I didn't even get to say goodbye…"

"Don't blame Dromeda. She's still slightly perturbed from her husband and daughter's deaths, allowing her to take her only remaining family member is the best thing to help her cope with the grief." Mr Weasley explained sniffling slightly.

"So that's it? He's gone?" Harry allowed a few tears to roll down his cheeks.

"He's gone." Mr Weasley nodded duly before hurriedly trudging into the kitchen, his head bowed and Harry assumed he was beginning to cry as he took hold of Mrs Weasley in a tight hug as she sobbed loudly. All because Teddy Lupin had finally gone home.

"I've had enough."

Under the cover of a few medium-sized trees in the corner of an open patch of playing grass near a Muggle road close to some houses, stood head-to-head, hoods up and in hushed voices stood Draco Malfoy and Onya Lewis. Draco had just Apparated near to the punctual Onya who had been leaning against one of the trees. Those were his first words as they huddled together behind a tree-trunk.

"Excuse me?!" Onya spluttered.

"I've had enough of all of it." Draco told her sternly.

She replied instantaneously, edging nearer to him, a spiteful tone in her voice; "Explain! You can't give up now Draco! Don't you want your mother and father? Your revenge on Potter? Or the exploitation of the Hallows?!"

"Hear me out…"

She snapped back, "No! I will not hear your pitiful ex…!"

"LISTEN!" Draco had grabbed her shoulders roughly and shook her angrily.

She now settled and looked into his eyes, "Fine."

"All this tip-toeing around, kissing up to McKinnon and trying not to be specific it's not working Onya!"

"I don't understand! I thought!"

"No! Listen!" Draco stared into her deeper, "I've got a better plan."  
"How could you…?! What?!"

"We need to get straight-to-the-point with McKinnon."

"I'm confused, "Onya looked upon him puzzled, "What do you suggest?"  
"We Imperiuse McKinnon." Draco left Onya temporarily stunned, she stood aback, mouth agape.

"Are you mad?! This man is the most dangerous wizard in the world! The amount of people he killed tumults the amount that the Dark Lord ever mustered! He'd kill you in an instant Draco if you ever…!"

"SHUT UP!" Draco silenced her, "We've got to try!"

"Try's the best word for it. We don't stand a chance!"

"Yes, we do. Trust me."

Onya shook her head disbelievingly, "I don't believe I'm going through with this."

"Then you'll go with it?" Draco asked her hopingly.

"Obviously."

"I return to McKinnon, Imperius him into telling me the exact location of all the necessary documents and all the enchantments surrounding them and how to break through them without detection. Then you'll break in and copy everything you need before formulating a plan with your people to break out the Death Eaters tomorrow. I'll wipe McKinnon's memory so he has no memory of anything that happened and plant the idea that he went for a nap or something. Tomorrow you break out the Death Eaters and I'll meet you up later on. Then together we'll look into the documents and how to get into Hogwarts," Draco gasped in relief after hurriedly relaying this information, "Deal?"

Onya looked at him with a look which consisted of acceptance and admiration, she gave a small smile; "Deal. Now hurry, you've got a job to do."

Draco nodded solemnly, gulped and shivered slightly as he stepped from out of the tree and span on his heel to disappear into the early morning light as Onya lay back against the tree tapping her wand here and there.

"Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…boom…bye bye little Harry…"

The area that Harry and Hermione found themselves lay down on was a vast grassy hill like sculpture facing up towards a steel grey sky dotted with dark clouds. The friends found themselves looking up at this miserable scene from the embankment, their hands entwined both looking slightly upset. This hill that they resided on was a little out from the Burrow and where Hermione desired to stop for a chat with Harry. They had arisen very early that morning for some light breakfast of toast before heading off out for a stroll across the grassy hills nearby. They now lay in silence looking up at the sky, expressionless as the wind rustled through their hair until Hermione shook Harry's interlocked hand. They exchanged an awkward glance which saw Harry remove his hand and sit up, followed suit by Hermione who looked at the side of his head as he continued looking upwards. She then tapped him on the shoulder so he was distracted from his non-existent thoughts and was caused to face Hermione full on.

"This has gone on long enough." She muttered kindly.

"There's nothing we can do, Hermione. It's all up to Ron." Harry replied ignorantly.

"Listen to me Harry Potter," Hermione told him sternly, "None of this is totally up to Ronald whatsoever."

"He's Ginny's sister, I'm his best-friend…he knows best…it's not going to work because he won't let it do so…" Harry mumbled.

"No," Hermione began, pushing her hair out of her face, "It can work you just don't want to let it work."

"Of course I bloody do!"

"Then act like it then Harry! We've got dangers facing us soon so we need to get this sorted out now!"

"How do you expect we do that then genius?!" Harry left Hermione speechless a moment.

"You let Ginny say what she wants, when she wants…there are two people in your relationship…don't dare think you can rule it by yourself Harry." Hermione told him slightly angrily.

"How many times do I have to tell you?! I can't hear her say that to me yet! I don't deserve it!" Harry argued.

"Yes you do! You deserve to hear those words more than she does from you!" Hermione retaliated leaving Harry startling intrigued, "You disappeared of the face of the earth for a reason! You weren't disloyal by ending it with her or leaving her alone because you had a chosen duty, a forced duty you willing to take in order to save her! You traipsed around the country hungry, tired and frightened risking your life to destroy objects of incredible dark magic to defeat the most feared being in existence, a tortured man who wanted your life and had control of everything we hold dearest! You liberated the entire human race from Voldemort! You're a hero, a saviour and you deserved to be loved!"

Tears stung Harry's eyes as he gazed into Hermione's who nodded serenely at him, a small smile on her face as Harry gulped, accepting the inevitable.

"Ginny Weasley now happens to be one of the luckiest girls in the Wizarding World right now because everyone knows Harry Potter is protecting her. And you know the reason why she's safe from danger? Remember what a great man once said about something so powerful and so important nothing can penetrate it; love, Harry, love. Dumbledore was right. Listen to him. He speaks only the truth. The bond you and Ginny have, nothing can break it."

The only thing Harry felt he could possibly do was do jerkily nod, tears glistening in his eyes as he rocked slightly backwards and forwards. Random phrases and parts of Hermione's speech whirred around his brain momentarily, he seemed unable to take it all in, he didn't know what to think of it or what to do.

"I'll talk to Ron. When you get the chance and you have the courage, tell her what's on your mind and she'll relay what she's thinking. When your thoughts appear mutual, things will be the way they should. Now come on, let's go home."

Hermione after instructing Harry of this took hold of his hand and pulled him up before slowly making her way across the hill in direction of the Burrow with him in tow.

McKinnon had decided to make the clearing in the forest near Aberdeen the group's base for now on and so for the time there were estrangements back at the Burrow, McKinnon, Goyle and the frequently disappearing Draco had camped out in sleeping bags and a tent Goyle had stolen from a Muggle store. McKinnon had enchanted it to be bigger in the inside than the outside and had set up various enchantments around the clearing including the likes of "Muffilato" and etcetera. It was now mid-morning an Draco had been absent since the crack of dawn, however McKinnon was used to these regular disappearances and put them down short trips out. He never did really become suspicious of Draco's actions as he believed fully that the latter was loyal to him and would do anything to keep McKinnon on side in order to get his parents back. For now, McKinnon had awoken Goyle from his deep, snoring slumber and ordered him to get practising his duelling skills with him. Goyle, tired from lack of sleep, grudgingly took out his wand from his rucksack which lay just near the entrance of the tent. The tent's insides weren't exactly roomy as McKinnon's enchantments were beginning to wear off now and so could only just fit the three of them in. Goyle rummaged through a pile of unfolded clothes and a handful of wands he had managed to steal of unsuspecting wizards until he found his own mid-way down. He then removed it, stuck it in the waistband of his jeans and trudged out into the autumn sunlight to see McKinnon stood in full robes near the bench at the riverbank, his wand fully aloft. He gestured to Goyle to face him dead-on, a good few metres away from one another.

"I'm sure you remember how to duel don't you Gregory?" McKinnon quizzed the groggy Goyle who grunted in reply and unsheathed the wand in his waistband and held it by his side.

"Now stand straight!" Goyle reluctantly erected himself into a stiff, upright position before rolling the wand between his fist as McKinnon ordered; "Now step forward until we meet in the middle!" Goyle followed the instructions and took a few steps forward, so did McKinnon until they were nearly nose-to-nose. McKinnon nodded and the pair of them lifted their wands beside their faces before quickly withdrawing them, turning on their heels and walking back to their original positions. When close to his, Goyle heard McKinnon turn on the mud, wand aloft and scream; "EXPELLIARMUS!"

Goyle turned around just in time to block the disarming charm with a simple flick of his wand, McKinnon dropped his wand arm and laughed manically. Goyle, distracted by this, was unable to then block the next fire which saw McKinnon arch the wand over his head and bellow; "RICTUMSEMPRA!" Goyle was then hit squarely on the shoulder blade and sent into the mud head first, just avoiding hitting the rim of the tent. Weakly, he span his wand arm on the ground and fired a non-verbal spell at a triumphant McKinnon's legs so that he slipped backwards onto the ground however he was too clever. He whipped his wand backwards and a trampoline appeared out of thin air so that when McKinnon fell on it he bounced back onto his feet and the trampoline disappeared like it had appeared. Goyle then pushed himself onto his knees and onto his feet as McKinnon raised eyebrows in a cocky way, twirling his wand between his fingers.

"Disappointing." McKinnon spat into the mud, an expression of disgust poised on his pallid face.

"GLISSEO!" McKinnon began to slip over again however he was able to deflect the hex into the air before rounding on Goyle.

"You've attempted to use two similar spells! Don't let these become your signature moves! Because you will die out there Goyle!" McKinnon snarled, "And one more thing!"

"What?!"

McKinnon quickly exchanged wand-hands by tossing his wand to the other hand behind his back before thrusting it forwards and slamming a non-verbal curse at Goyle which sent him crashing into the tent.

"NEVER LET YOUR GUARD DOWN! If that was Avada Kedavra you'd be dead!"

POP! Draco had just Apparated right behind McKinnon's back, his wand fully aloft when the latter turned on his heel to see the disturbance, a grin on his face as he saw Draco. However, Draco flicked his wand and hollered; "REDUCTO!" McKinnon's facial expression changed to mere shock just in time as he was flung back a few yards into the mud near Goyle's feet. He was now unconscious as Draco strode forward, stepped over the body and kicked it aside as he neared Goyle who was trying to get onto his feet, his wand in his hand.

"ARE YOU MAD?!" Goyle shouted as he regained balance.

"YES! STUPEFY!" Goyle was set to mouth an incantation of his own when he was blasted sideways near the bottom of a tree trunk, his wand flew upwards and Draco caught it single-handed with his left. With his wand he muttered; "Diffindo!" and the wand dismally fell into two separate pieces which Draco threw aside. He then rounded back on the unconscious Goyle and cried; "INCARCEROUS!" Goyle was then promptly bound in tight layers of rope that were wrapped around his anatomy. Then, Draco cast one final charm on Goyle; "Obliviate!" Face screwed up in concentration, tears being held back, Draco was able to muster a complete memory charm that saw Goyle's eyes defocus, become slightly dreamy and then close. Draco then lifted his wand and turned back to the unmoving McKinnon.

Draco kneeled beside the man he had just kicked aside and rolled him back onto his front, he saw McKinnon's wand lay askew just beside his right arm, Draco pocketed it. He then cast the 'Incarcerous' charm on McKinnon who now lay tied up as Draco jabbed his wand between his eyes and whispered; "Enervate!" McKinnon suddenly gave a large sigh, his chest rose steadily as his eyes flicked open, livid, the darkness in his pupils enlightened by rage. He immediately thrashed about his bonds screaming nonsense until Draco realigned his wand again and screamed; "IMPERIO!"

McKinnon's cries of anger were silenced as his face muscles relaxed, his eyes went cross-eyes and dewy and his mouth opened agape. Draco sighed in relief as he sat on his heels, the curse had worked.

"McKinnon?"

"Yes…" McKinnon slurred dreamily, much unlike himself.

"Tell me the location of the documents concerning the exploitation of the Deathly Hallows!" Draco was now back onto his knees, wand directed at McKinnon's heart just in case he'd been able to resist and was faking it, Onya had mentioned resistance to Imperius Curse when Draco had returned to visit just after leaving at dawn.

"Draco…?" Draco realised the curse was wearing off, McKinnon's eyes were becoming focused.

"CRUCIO!" Before McKinnon had chance to regain sense Draco fired the torture curse causing McKinnon to squirm and squeal as he felt every nerve in his body scream out in agony. Draco then bellowed, much more concentrated now; "_IMPERIO!" _The curse hit McKinnon full in the face removing the torture curse and replacing it with the Imperius curse which left him once again dumb-founded.

"Again! Where have you hidden the documents concerning the exploitation of the Deathly Hallows!" McKinnon was fully sedated however the curse wasn't strong enough as the latter was able to just roll his head side wards, lips pouted. Then Draco remembered something! Veritaserum! Why didn't he think of it all that time ago?! McKinnon had some stored in his own rucksack in the tent in case they came across anyone he'd like to interrogate. Draco flicked his wand towards the tent and bellowed; "ACCIO VERITASERUM!" Suddenly, a small vial of see-through liquid shot out of the tent flaps and into Draco's open palm. Once caught he uncorked the top of the bottle and forced it through McKinnon's closed lips which when the potion touched them, slackened.

"Tell me the whereabouts where the documents about the exploitation of the Deathly Hallows are!"

"The Witch's Dip, a bowl-like area downhill from a clearing in the un-named forests on the outskirts of Derby near a Muggle suburban town. The documents have been transfigured into a fake wand which resides in a brown case at the top of the tallest tree." McKinnon rambled, his eyes defocused, dribble rolling from his continuously agape mouth.

"What are it's defences?!"

"It cannot be magically summoned using one's wand but has to be done using that of the one who set up its defences. You must venture to the forest alone with the documents' owner's wand and retrieve it, reverse the transfiguration and you have the documents." McKinnon informed him unknowingly.

"If I was to give you a sleeping draught how long would it last for?" Draco asked him hurriedly.

"Twenty four hours if the potion is brewed correctly." McKinnon nodded duly, still slavering.

Draco then took out a bottle of sleeping draught that Onya had managed to attain a few days previously and he had taken it from her on their second meeting that morning. He unscrewed the bottle top on the flask before issuing McKinnon a large dose of it before moving onto Goyle and doing the same. Both then abruptly fell to sleep with heavy snores, Draco flung the now empty flask aside and took hold of McKinnon's wand, his father's old wand. Draco pocketed it and looked with an expression of regret upon Goyle however he kicked the sleeping McKinnon in the jaw spraying blood onto the leaves before taking a few steps forward away from the unconscious forms. He turned back momentarily and sighed before twisting on his heel and disappearing into the shadows with the thought he had weakened McKinnon and gained access to returning the others to break out his parents and wreak revenge on Harry Potter!

Teddy was gone. Mr Weasley was working alone on an unknown project in the shed. Mrs Weasley was preparing sandwiches for lunch, alone. Bill and Fleur had been having a private conversation. George and Charlie had played various games of Wizard Chess. Ron sat sulking moodily in the corner of the lounge reading the Daily Prophet. Ginny lay back on the sofa, her head on a pillow, staring at the ceiling. The Burrow was still, silent. People were secretly at war with one another and now they had lost Harry's godson to an ill Dromeda Tonks earlier that morning without any kind of goodbyes. It wasn't until Harry and Hermione returned just before twelve that noise entered the quite home. Nothing had been said between the family and all was silent until the two friends traipsed in the back door to Mrs Weasley's surprise.

"You frightened me half to death!"

"Sorry, Mrs Weasley." Harry apologised, Mrs Weasley smiled.

"It's fine. Where did you walk then this morning?"

"Just around the hills." Hermione replied back. Mrs Weasley nodded.

"Are Ron and Ginny about?" Harry cross-examined Mrs Weasley.

"They're in the front room." Mrs Weasley allowed the two to then pass by her and trounce into the next room where they discovered the two people they wanted to find. When Bill and Fleur spotted Harry and Hermione they nodded and curtly exited and went to the kitchen, George and Charlie who had been playing chess left their game and hurried up the stairs. At this moment Ron folded the Daily Prophet and discarded on the arm of his chair as Ginny sat up and changed her view of the ceiling to that of Harry and Hermione.

"Ron could I have a word with you just out here please?" Hermione muttered for Ron to gradually unseat himself and trudge towards her, Hermione took his hand and ushered him outside, closing the door. Harry and Ginny were now alone in the front-room. Harry tip-toed his way to the sofa where Ginny span around and dropped her feet to the floor, she turned to look at Harry who gave an apologetic grin.

"Ginny…I think it's about time that I said something to you…something I've been meaning to say for a long time…" Harry whispered, taking hold of her hand, she obliged and held his tightly.

"I think I've been wanting to say the same thing back, Harry…" Ginny simpered, her eyes suddenly began to swim with tears.

"It's been too long, if we'd done this sooner we'd have had such more time together than we've had…" Harry's stomach twisted, he felt a lump in his throat.

"Maybe that's true…maybe it isn't…but I think we've know each other's feelings anyway and we've been together through heart not physical presence…" Ginny explained kindly sniffing slightly.

Harry's eyes stung with tears, his teeth chattered, his body trembled, "I can't get the words right…they sound right in my head but…"

"Have courage…it's one of the things that I adore the most about you…the Boy Who Lived…and you deserved it…" Harry could feel Ginny's tears drip down on their enclosed hands.

"You're so beautiful…you're like a goddess…something that needs to be worshipped, looked after…you're too good to compliment what I am…"

"No…Harry Potter…you are my chosen one…and you know what? I love you."

"I love you too Ginny."

They kissed. Harry had one hand through her long, sweet smelling hair and the other hand down at her waist while she held his head between her hands. Harry was numb, he felt nothing else, just her graceful presence wrapped around him. Nothing else in the world mattered, just her, just Ginny…her hair, her eyes, her face, her lips… He wanted to stay there. Forever. Holding onto her, not letting go. Staying where he was, kissing her…the best feeling in the world…at that moment…on that couch…Harry had never been happier. All because he was with Ginny, the only person in his life that truly mattered. The girl he loved forevermore. Ginny…


	19. The Fight Continues

Onya, for the first time in her life, had been able to remain patient as she stayed leaning against the tree she had previously stood beside with Draco earlier that day. She was tired, bored and lonely but knew if she left that Draco would be unable to find her and meeting up with him was crucial now. She was partially distracted with thoughts that he had been unable to complete the task properly, that he hadn't gained the correct information, that McKinnon had murdered him. He had obviously taken his time if the procedure had gone to plan however Onya did desperately want the teenager to return soon, she had places to be. Her army of seven were practising their duelling skills amongst the trees in a forest clearing down in South Wales, they all awaited her instructions as in what to do the next day at Agri Pene fields. She had considered plans of what to do the next morning, how to infiltrate the area, how to break out the others, how to escape…but she wished to explore them more in depth with Draco when he returned. She had decided not to carry out her mission that day instead leave it until another time when she was able to focus straight. Plus, at that moment she didn't even know where the documents concerning the exploitation of the Hallows lay... _'Hurry, Draco…' _she thought…

Then he Apparated, on the roadside, Lucius' wand hung out of his robes, his own wand aloft as he strode towards a pleased looking Onya who giggled and jumped on the spot as Draco neared her, looking solemn.

"The Imperius Curse wasn't full-proof, luckily enough I found some Veritaserum and he told me everything we needed to know!" Draco took a deep breath of relief, he tried to lose the tension within him, to relax a little now it was all over, "Thanks to that Sleeping Draught the two of them will be out of action for about twenty four hours so they won't be able to interfere when we break out the others from the execution tomorrow morning."  
"Excellent! Thank you, Draco!" Onya rushed forwards and wrapped her arms around him tightly, his eyes widened in surprise, "Now tell me everything…" she said this as she released him, he stumbled backwards a little before explaining in detail what he knew from McKinnon. At the end of what he said she smiled widely.

"Sounds simple enough…I shall carry it through another day…thanks again, Draco…wow…I'm very proud of you, you know that right? I could of never…" she appeared to be amazed at Draco's heroic efforts in the forest.

"Thanks but it was nothing, honestly…it was almost a pleasure…" Draco tried to smile but his face failed him and he grimaced instead.

"Now, I've been thinking about tomorrow…what we should do…it's going to be damn risky but I've got a feeling it should work…"

"What does it involve?" Draco quizzed her abruptly.

"All of my followers, you and I…what I think we should do is…"

Harry felt like the day that had just blown past him was the first day of the rest of his life and he loved every single second of it mainly because of a few things. One, he had his best-friend back; Ron had been persuaded by Hermione to reconcile which he did independently after discovering Harry and Ginny's love for one another. Two, the Death Eaters were set to be executed that next morning which meant the end to the Second Wizarding War. And three, Ginny…Ginny…Ginny… Ever since their reconciliation that morning and exploitation of each other's love they were not separated for the remainder of that day. They chatted until lunch came around where they sat with each other, curled up on the sofa feeding each other with little bits of food. Then, they chatted again and joined in a couple of games of Exploding Snap with Ron and Hermione who were also back on great terms too. Then, tea came around, they sat next to one another at the table and giggled and joked the way through up until after dinner drinks when everyone sat in the living-room with bottles of Butterbeer or glasses of Elf Wine or in Ron's case a litre of Firewhisky begrudgingly given to him by his mother as a treat. Some of the Weasleys now found themselves ever so tipsy and one by one traipsed up to bed. Once Fleur, laughing hysterically, partly dragged Bill up the stairs as he had toppled on the first step, got to their room it only left five of them. Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Mr Weasley. The latter was red-faced but sobering up after a pint of water, Hermione was a little excited whereas Ron slurred his words and rolled his head a bit too much. Then, there was Harry and Ginny who could handle their drinks and were more or less sober just very happy with the situation they had found themselves in. It wasn't until one in the morning the next day when things became slightly serious as Mr Weasley coughed for Harry's attention who had been absent-mindedly stroking Ginny's hair, she was lay in his lap.

"Harry, myself and Molly were wondering whether you wanted us to accompany you later this morning to the executions." Mr Weasley asked him, eyebrows raised Harry looked up at him serenely.

Harry had completely forgot he had that to attend to later that morning however he still replied, "No thanks…it'll be fine…I'm just going to go with Ginny, you and Mrs Weasley just stay here…" Harry mumbled.

"Are you sure Harry? We could always…"

"No," Harry told him sternly, "I want to go alone with Ginny by Side Along Apparition. Nothing you say can change that I'm afraid."

Mr Weasley nodded, "Well, if that's all I'm going to head off for bed, Molly will wonder what's keeping me…" he then rose from his armchair and departed up the spiral staircase.

"G'night dad!" Ron hiccoughed, Hermione giggled.

"Harry? Are you okay?" Harry looked into Ginny's beautiful eyes as she asked him this.

"Yeah…just forgot about it…never mind…you best get some sleep…long day tomorrow…"

"Yeah…" she looked him sadly before sitting up and curling up against the sofa her feet now near to Harry, he decided to drop beside her, just behind, he wrapped an arm round her side, she took hold of his hand. Eventually she fell to sleep as Ron and Hermione sloped off to bed saying their drunken goodnights. Harry however stayed gazing at Ginny and watched her as she slept until after an hour or two he dropped off himself.

"HARRY! WAKE UP! WAKE UP HARRY!"

"What happened?! What's wrong?! Are we late for the executions?!"

Harry had been awoken via the cries of Ginny who was knelt beside him stroking his face. Once he opened his eyes she embraced him tightly, when she let go he eyed her bemused.

"What's wrong?"

"You were screaming the house down…rolling around squirming…what did you see? What happened Harry?"

And then he remembered it all. He had been dreaming again. It was McKinnon, he stood towering over Harry laughing hysterically, Draco and Onya stood either side of him as he struck Harry with curses unbeknownst to him. He was torturing him, and every part of Harry's body had ached with unbearable agony as the curses got worse and McKinnon laughed as he sang about Harry being killed. Harry had been screaming, crying out…he couldn't bear it anymore…he wanted to die…and then it had happened. Arose from the dust of the earth formed the shape of Lord Voldemort who spoke Harry's name in a high, cold whisper as he traipsed forwards, getting nearer to Harry, his wand aloft…his pale, white face loomed closer…his unarmed, long-fingered white spider hand tried to grab Harry…his snake like, red eyes burned with hatred…the wand he held was arched over his head…his mouth formed words Harry couldn't hear. There was a bright flash of green and then he woke up.

"It was just a nightmare…nothing else…don't worry…I'm fine…" Harry muttered realising he was shaking slightly, cold sweat covered his body, his top stuck to his chest. There was some blood dripping from his lip which he wiped hastily with his fist…The fit must have been bad…but he shrugged it off…he knew he had places to go…

"Time…what's the time…?"

"Just gone seven…plenty of time. Go and get washed, changed…come back down and have breakfast…then we'll set off soon as… okay?"

"Yeah…" Harry nodded weakly before getting to his feet and weakly walking towards the staircase, Ginny looked at him with a hint of empathy in her eyes.

Soon enough, Harry was back downstairs a bit more refreshed now clean and wearing new clothes, he then settled for some breakfast which consisted of a few slices of burnt toast and a goblet of Pumpkin Juice. Harry and Ginny then made their goodbyes to the rest of the Weasley family and Hermione before they exited through the kitchen into the back garden. They then trudged towards its end before taking one another's hands, Harry screwed up his face in concentration thinking of Agri Pene fields as he and Ginny turned on their heels. He then felt himself be squeezed through a tight, rubber tube, his lungs being crushed and then they landed. Harry stood up weakly after crashing onto his knees on the hard ground, feeling slightly sick he opened his eyes to see their new location; Agri Pene fields.

It wasn't a massive field but actually relatively small but still was able to occupy around twenty odd wizards and witches within it bordered by a perimeter of hooded Aurors. The audience in the centre of the flat grassy area were talking excitedly amongst their selves, trying to figure out which Death Eaters were up for execution and speculating how long everything was going to take and so on. In front of the crowd in a line stood ten hooded Aurors who stood to attention, their wands held beside them looking solemn and concentrated. Attached to a gate which was erected in front of these wizards were the ten surviving Death Eaters themselves. It appeared the field was property of a Muggle school whose playground Harry could see through the gaps in the fence. The place was deserted and had probably been closed down, the field had obviously been given a false name in case others tried to visit the executions. Avery, Amycus Carrow, Antonin Dolohov, Crabbe Senior, Fenrir Greyback, Lucius Malfoy, Rodolphus Lestrange, Selwyn, Walden MacNair and Yaxley were bound head to toe against the green fence, respectively. It appeared at that moment they were unconscious as all had their eyes closed and heads lolled to one side. It appeared many of them had changed in various ways since Harry had last seen them.

This included Fenrir Greyback who looked more dishevelled and shabby than ever as he hadn't been living in the correct environment for his transformations. He also looked drained and pale, a result of the lack of blood and meat he had access to in Azkaban. Yaxley, looked much thinner, his eyes had various bags on them and his skin was stretched tightly over his blunt features. Tufts of his hair had fallen out due to stress and he had gained a few facial injuries near to his left eye and right cheekbone. And then there was Lucius Malfoy who looked the most-affected out of all ten of them. He looked dreadfully haughty, his shadowed eyes drawn back into their sockets, his hairline was receding and seemed to be greying. His skin was stretched around his cheekbones and he appeared to be growing a dark stubble. His left wrist had been wrapped in a dirty cast and his face now owned a long scar down the right side.

These were the faces of the defeated, weakened Death Eaters who were prepared to be killed…

"Harry!"

It was Kingsley Shacklebolt, he stood in robes of black, earring missing, next to a tired looking Percy Weasley who wore a crisp suit of dark blue. The Ministerial pair stood to side of the mass beside a couple of hooded Aurors, Kingsley gestured to Harry and Ginny to come over to them. Harry took his time to graciously shake Kingsley's hand as Ginny rushed forwards and seized Percy in a back-breaking hug, after detaching her he gave Harry a big hand shake and smiled.

"I'm guessing you two are giving orders then?" Harry asked them, he was slightly more happier for seeing the two Ministers.

"Of course, we're the ones who authorised this whole event to go ahead," Kingsley laughed, "Which reminds me," he paused to take a look at the watch on his wrist, "We don't have anytime to talk, the executions are set to take place soon…sorry Harry…Ginny…" Kingsley then rushed off towards the front of the crowd leaving Percy alone with Harry and Ginny.

"Kingsley's more in charge, he'll deliver the final blow…I'm not as important so I can just quickly have a word with the pair of you…time to catch up…" Percy mumbled.

"I understand why you left us Percy and I forgive you…so if you thought you'd take this opportunity to explain and apologise just don't…everything's good." Ginny told him sternly.

"Ah…thank you, little sis…that's greatly appreciated…" he nodded to floor sadly before raising it back up, "So, it's just you two is it?"

"Yeah…if three's a crowd the whole family's not going to help..." Ginny joked, Percy chuckled lightly.

"I guess…so you two…I'm guessing you're an item then?"

"Pretty much." Harry added.

"Well, erm, don't tell mother and father but…well, Ginny…I'm also in a relationship too."

"Oh we know you are!" Percy gave her confused look, "With your job of course!"

"Not exactly," Percy shook his head and Harry was sure he issued something of a giggle, "To a woman."

"Excuse me?!" Ginny spluttered, Harry took a step back in shock.

"I met her whilst on my own after the Battle of Hogwarts down in the remains of Diagon Alley, she was helping clean up…her name's Audrey."

"Audrey?!" Ginny exclaimed in a fit of laughter, Harry tried to stifle his the best he could.

"Yes, she's just a few months younger than myself, Muggle-born, lovely family used to work at Witch Weekly just to get some money before becoming unemployed. I was able to get her a job as Junior Undersecretary to the Minister when me and Kingsley came into power…she's very polite and intelligent and quite beautiful…the perfect woman. And if you must know…we're engaged…"

Ginny was different to any other girl Harry knew, instead of exclaiming and being giddy over the prospect of someone getting married like many girls do, she simply clasped Percy into another hug muttering happily; "Congratulations Perce!"

Harry then took a step back forward and wringed Percy's hand.

"Right, now I must dash…Death Eaters…" Percy's ears had gone red as he rushed off towards Kingsley who stood menacingly beside the sleeping Death Eaters.

Ginny shook her head in disbelief and started to ramble as she linked arms with Harry and then pair of them wandered to the back of the crowd, Harry who was wearing a hooded jacket dropped the hood over his head covering the top half of his face.

"…who would believe it? Our Perce engaged?! Wait till mum hears…what the hell are you doing?" she had noticed him cover his face.

"Crowd of people in front of us Ginny and the Death Eaters lined up at the front maybe?"

"Ah, it's just I hate not being able to see your face…" she put her head between his and his shoulder, he wrapped an arm around her as she put both around his waist. At the front, Kingsley and Percy were now preparing themselves. They had removed their wands and put them down their side and had turned their previously elated expressions to those of concentration and solemnness. The line of Aurors at the front shifted awkwardly and fiddled with their wands. Kingsley then put his wand to his throat and muttered; "Sonorus!" Suddenly his voice was magnified so that the crowd afore him fell into silence.

"Now that I have your attention! The time has reached nearly nine o'clock and myself and co-Minister Weasley have decided it is time to bring the execution of the surviving Death Eaters forward! Silence please as the procedure is carried out, no booing or jeering as the Death Eaters are awaken from their slumber ready for execution. If anyone present is unable to contain him or herself or has any motives which will damage today's procedures you will be immediately be remanded in custody at Azkaban Prison where you will be punished forthwith…"

Kingsley now took a step back, "Aurors, awake the criminals!"

The Aurors in unison lifted their wands and chorused; "RENNERVATE!"

The Death Eaters then all took a hasty breath as they were awoken and adjusted to the bright sky and the numerous people that surrounded them. The majority abruptly became full of rage and attempted to break their bonds and so squirmed around a great deal, issuing screams of nonsense. However, Yaxley stood stock still, he looked calm and ready, his eyes were set focused at the Auror in front of him. Lucius Malfoy looked paranoid and slightly worried, his eyes darted around the fields taking in his surroundings, he looked like he was waiting for something. Not the execution though… Harry shook nervously, he drew his hood down further his face and Ginny removed her head from his shoulder and dropped her hand to meet his and they joined them. She gave him a comforting smile as Kingsley prepared to speak again.

"Now, Aurors, raise your wands!"

This was it! As the Aurors raised their wands aloft so that they directed at the Death Eater they had been given, thoughts raced through Harry's mind. The Death Eaters were about to killed! The survivors, they were going to be gone! The crimes they had committed, were to be avenged with this one act! The end of the second wizarding war was close!

"On the count of three you shall then cast the Killing Curse onto each of your respective captives…" Yaxley remained calm, Lucius still remained worried as others like Greyback tried to rip their bonds, in his case gnaw them with his razor sharp teeth. Harry was bemused why Yaxley and Lucius were so relaxed about the whole thing?! Surely they were scared of death?!

"Three!" The crowd looked upon the Death Eaters impatiently, fingers crossed and under bated breath hoping all would commence. Kingsley gulped, Percy adjusted his jacket…the Aurors fingered their wands carefully, rotating them between their fingers…

"Two!" Harry was still curious about Yaxley and Malfoy's actions. They were a little suspicious. It was like they were both expecting something, waiting for something Harry couldn't realise yet. What was going on through their heads? Why were they not scared?!

"One!" All hell broke loose.

"RELASHIO!" the Aurors flung down their hoods as they chorused the charm which released the bonds on each Death Eater so that they collapsed to the ground in mere shock. The Aurors hadn't been Aurors at all! They had been wizards attempting to break out the Death Eaters and it wasn't until the one facing Lucius Malfoy turned around that Harry could tell who was leading the operation. Draco Malfoy span around, his wand aloft as his father tried to get onto his feet he laughed manically as he shot some sparks into the air. At that moment, just metres behind Harry one of the Aurors guarding the perimeter dropped their hood, there stood none other than Onya Lewis! It appeared Draco had broken ranks and was now working with Onya and the followers she had picked up in the tavern that time ago! Draco then expelled a large bubble shield which wrapped around the Death Eaters at the front of the crowd as the majority of wizard and witches watching Disapparated. Kingsley and Percy rushed into the fray to attempt to penetrate the bubble shield. Draco ignored these attempts as he removed a single piece of parchment from his robes and chucked it to his father who spluttered only his son's name.

"Disapparate now if you want guaranteed life!" Draco began, instructing all of them, "Or stay to fight! Choose now! Here's the location!" Draco chucked the parchment to his father who was surrounded by a few of the Death Eaters who immediately Disapparated with all of Onya's followers, leaving only Draco, Lucius, Yaxley, Fenrir and Amycus Carrow. From the depths of his robes Draco withdrew four wands including Lucius' which he threw to the amazement of his father. They were now armed and held their wands aloft.

Elsewhere, as Kingsley, Percy and two of the Aurors from the perimeter tried to penetrate Draco's force field, the crowd had dispersed leaving only Harry and Ginny who immediately unsheathed their wands, Harry threw back his hood as Onya who had been attacked by a gang of eight Aurors spotted him. She had managed to kill three of them with the Killing Curse and was struggling to fight off the others as they fired curses here and there. Then, over the racket of spells Kingsley bellowed; "Aurors shoot only to kill! Even the girl!" The Aurors then changed tactics to firing Killing curses at Onya who rolled around on the ground, jumping here and there to avoid the onslaught of spells. Then, the shield around the front disappeared and with a clean strike each Carrow and Greyback killed the two Aurors helping Kingsley and Percy with a flash of green. Draco scarpered around the two Ministers as his father and Yaxley became immersed in a duo-duel. Harry told Ginny to stay where she was as he raced after Draco who for the first time in his life fired three Killing Curses at the Aurors attacking Onya leaving only two. By this time Carrow had joined the fray by Apparating in front of one of them and firing the Killing Curse between his eyes this was as Harry met the three Death Eaters. Once spotted by the Auror Harry was then shielded by a large shield.

"POTTER!" Carrow pointed his wand hysterically at Harry who tried to break the Auror's shield around him.

Onya and Draco exchanged wicked grins as they conjoined stunning spells and broke the Auror's force field allowing him and Harry to fall backwards. Carrow then rushed forwards, wand arched over his head when the Auror on the ground swung his wand at him and shouted "Avada Kedavra!" Amycus Carrow then dropped to the ground, dead.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" It was Ginny! Harry took the chance of Amycus' death to leave the Auror furiously battling Onya and Draco who were desperate to follow Harry. The latter raced back across the field to see Ginny slammed to ground by the bare hands of Fenrir Greyback who cast aside his wand and bared his teeth as he went on all fours covering her body with his mass. He prepared to rip her neck as she frantically tried to grab her wand that was too far away to reach. However, Harry had reached her just in time; "STUPEFY!" he fired the hex at Greyback who was flung side wards as Harry took hold of Ginny's hand and pulled her up onto her feet. She grabbed her wand and held it aloft but before Harry could check she was okay he saw Greyback stand back up. Harry was prepared to fire again when Greyback decided to Disapparate instead. On the other side Harry saw Onya and Draco continue to duel the one Auror left alive, but he was more drawn to the epic fight between Yaxley and Lucius and Kingsley and Percy. Percy was firing hexes left right and centre whilst Yaxley cleverly blocked them and occasionally send back his own various curses which caused some physical damage to Percy's face. Kingsley however had taken on Lucius who was rather weak and his feeble attempts to punish Kingsley failed, was overpowered. After failing to disarm Kingsley, the latter slammed Lucius to the ground with a non-verbal spell before swinging a heavy boot into his jaw knocking him flat out. Kingsley then placed a foot on his stomach and directed his wand at Lucius' heart. He slashed his wand in a peculiar motion from left diagonally down. Lucius then shuddered violently and gasped as a mouthful of blood erupted from his mouth and eventually began to froth horrendously. Then, deep gashes across Lucius' body began to appear as Kingsley removed his boot and let the blood spill onto the grass, Yaxley beside him, still duelling Percy, winced as he saw Lucius' eyes roll to the back of his head. Harry recognised the curse now, _Sectumsempra_. It was a more developed and deadly version however Harry recognised it after using it upon Draco back in the bathrooms at Hogwarts.

Lucius then choked and released one final breath as the remaining blood drained out of various cuts and scars, creating a large puddle of crimson around his torso staining the grass. His chest then stopped rising from the breaths he took because he had no more to give. Lucius Malfoy was dead.

"FATHER!" Harry span on the spot to see Draco depart from his duel with the Auror, leaving Onya to defend for herself, blood dripped from the corner of her lip. As Draco raced towards Kingsley who turned to face the oncoming teenager, Harry aimed a trip jinx at his feet. Draco flopped to the ground in agony as Harry rushed forwards to his side and rolled him over with his foot. Draco then fired a stunning spell in Harry's face flinging him onto his back as he jumped back onto his feet and continued running towards the corpse of his father. Kingsley raised his wand aloft, prepared for the worst.

"AVADA KEDAVRA! AVADA KEDAVRA!" Draco, his hand shaking pugnaciously was unable to concentrate his firing of the Killing Curse so it was rebounded here and there as Harry saw through his blurry, unfocused vision Ginny chase after Draco but as she did he slowed down, admitting defeat. However as Kingsley was poised to take him out, Draco dropped and rolled on the grass, fired the Reducto curse at Percy's left leg so he collapsed to the ground. Draco then got up and took hold of Yaxley's hand, turning on the spot and Disapparating. Kingsley then retreated to kneeling beside Percy and tending to his smashed up leg. Ginny turned round and went to Harry who slowly got onto his feet, the pair of them then charged at Onya. The latter was still in fierce battle with the Auror but as she saw the couple come closer she gave up and shot a simple Killing Curse at the Auror's shoulder-blade leaving him to drop to the ground, dead. She kicked aside his dead body as Harry took heed and trudged ahead of Ginny, anger boiling through his veins.

"INCARCEROUS!" Onya unexpectedly bound Harry in ropes so that he crashed to the ground squirming but before Onya had chance to step forward and do any more damage, Ginny vied forward and screeched; "RICTUMSEMPRA!"

Onya was struck in the shoulder and flopped to the ground as Ginny rounded on her, livid. The former domed her wand over her head and was ready to scream another curse when Onya rolled on her side and Disapparated. Ginny then deflated and dropped her wand arm, defeated and disappointed. She then turned on the spot and released Harry from his bonds so that he could regain balance and join her as she made her way to the two Ministers at the front of the field. Kingsley was nursing to Percy's shattered leg, the bones stuck out in odd places gruesomely.

"They escaped!" Harry sighed exasperated taking in short, heavy breaths.

"I know!" Kingsley punched the earth beneath with tumultuous rage.

"Draco was working with Onya! Do you think he's betrayed McKinnon?! Done something to him and Goyle explaining why they weren't involved with this?!" Harry probed Kingsley.

"Probably, but that's internal problems they can deal with! The point is ten of my Aurors have just been murdered! And probably nine more where that came from, allowing them to infiltrate like that!" Kingsley moaned angrily.

"At least Carrow and Malfoy are dead though?!"

"That's two Death Eaters dead! But nineteen of the Ministry's finest Aurors! There's now nineteen Death Eaters out there plus McKinnon and Goyle, that makes twenty one! Twenty one Death Eaters! That's more than the innocent people we've lost today!" Kingsley exclaimed examining Percy's leg who winced when his leg was touched, Ginny was now on the other side of him trying to sooth him. Harry stood up and turned to face the field, there lay ten dead innocent bodies amongst that were that of Amycus Carrow and the mutilated Lucius Malfoy who lay only steps away from Harry.

The Death Eaters were back. The fight continued.


	20. Another Day

On the pebbled shore to a fast flowing river down in the forests of Northern Scotland, stood the surviving eight Death Eaters and Draco Malfoy. Only moments ago had Draco and Yaxley Disapparated from Agri Pene fields to find themselves standing ahead of the others they had just saved. However, before any words were exchanged between any of them there was a blast of air and discarding of pebbles as Onya Lewis Apparated beside the river. Yaxley immediately turned on his heel, removed the wand he had been given from the depths of his robes and targeted Onya as he bellowed; "Expelliarmus!"

Onya rocketed backwards onto her back, her wand whipped into the air to roll dismally down the shore and into the edge of the river. As she crashed onto the ground with a wince of pain, Draco turned round to see the commotion and stepped forwards as Yaxley trudged towards the unmoving Onya who stayed down.

"Who are you?!" Yaxley demanded, his wand fired sparks as Onya sat up, she rubbed the back of her head and winced again with a fiery look in her eyes.

"Onya Lewis…I'm guessing you're Yaxley?"

"That's not the point, girl!" Yaxley exclaimed as Onya propped herself back on two feet, "Where's Jeremiah?!"

Yaxley span around on the spot sarcastically before turning on Draco who took a step back in shock, "I thought you were working with him Draco? Jeremiah and Goyle's son; Gregory. Where are they? They aren't here and they definitely weren't involved in that dreadful operation! You were there today, but with her and with her men and I know full well Jeremiah would never allow any of it!" Yaxley shouted, "Which of course means that you, Draco, have been disloyal to him. You have betrayed him and left to join forces with that bitch! That girl does not have the capabilities or experiences to help her devise a full-proof plan because as we saw today, she is a danger to us all! Draco, your father is dead and it is her fault because of her lack of organisation! You have risked your life for this Draco!"

Yaxley began to pace, Onya stared at him in revulsion as Draco stared blankly into space looking completely emotionless as Yaxley continued his speech, "Jeremiah is not a man of forgiveness Draco. You've obviously tied him up or knocked him unconscious just so you could be there today otherwise he would have been, guaranteed! But, if you take us now, to Jeremiah, whatever memory charm you've placed on him I'll modify! You were all attacked at the last moment, you then escaped and found Onya and used her and her army to break out us all. Now, that's me giving you an alibi. Take it, just take us to Jeremiah. I ensure your safety just get us out of here and leave this bitch be on her own!"

Onya then quickly processed a pleading, desperate look at Draco whose lip trembled in return as he muttered almost inaudibly, "Y-y-y-y-ye…y-y-yes…"

Onya dropped her head in disappointment as Yaxley turned to her followers and asked them, "Now, any of you who wish to take seats with the darkest, most dangerous wizard alive, who's kill toll beats that of the Dark Lord please Disapparate now to where, Draco?"

"W-w-w-w-w-white…m-m-meadow f-f-forest…outskirts of A-A-Aber…A-A-A-A-A-Aberdeen…"

Yaxley nodded to the followers who all then instantly Disapparated, Onya gasped.

"I-I-I-I w-w-w-ish...t-t-t-to speak w-w-w-with her…" Draco spluttered, Onya raised her head in curio.

"Fine."

Draco the stumbled across the rocky floor to Onya and dragged her up the sloped, muddy bank and onto the pathway, they turned their backs to the on looking Death Eaters.

"You betrayed me Draco!" Onya whispered furiously.

"N-n-no…I…" Draco gasped.

"What then? You take my men and leave me alone after we planned to steal those documents together? What has changed your mind about McKinnon?"

"Nothing…I'm not leaving you…"

"I don't understand?" Onya raised her eyebrows in curio.

"I just need to be under the radar, not be so suspicious…I will go with them for a few days…t-t-t-then we shall meet at our usual place to p-p-p-plan the stealing of the documents…"

Onya's eyes widened, stunned at what she heard, "You're coming back for me?"

"My f-f-f-f-f-f-f-father's death was not your fault…he was t-t-tired, weak…he had no c-chance…"

"I'm sorry…" Onya apologised sympathetically.

"G-g-g-g-get more followers while you w-w-wait…" Draco nodded sourly, "When we have the d-d-d-documents w-w-we will have the D-D-D-D-Dark Lord under our control…all the Death E-e-eaters…the o-o-o-thers will re-join us…" Draco explained.

"Yes…your right..." Onya shed a single tear, "We must end on bad terms though or the others will find this suspicious. I'll try to attack you, you respond…"

"Y-y-yeah…"

"But before we do…I need to tell you something, Draco…I've been…well, developments have happened since we started working together that I've been unable to control…and erm, well, I think I might just…" she trembled as she tried to churn out the words.

"For now we stay partners, n-n-nothing else. It's better that way…" Draco told her.

"Right, well you must get going…" she refrained from letting even one tear fall from her filled eyes.

Draco nodded and pretended to storm down the embankment, Onya followed faking anger as she charged at him in front of Yaxley and pushed him forwards. Draco turned around and took out his wand and shouted; "STUPEFY!"

Onya was knocked backwards onto the ground unconscious, Yaxley nodded at Draco with a smile.

"Come, Draco, we must go."

Draco nodded, exchanging one final glance at Onya's unconscious form before twisting on the spot and Disapparating.

Ron and Hermione had sat in their respective deckchairs in the Burrow back-garden ever since they completed finishing off their breakfast just after realising Harry and Ginny had gone to the executions. They now waited patiently for them to return, eager to hear what happened, however they were left slightly paranoid wondering what kept them both as it neared lunch and they agreed to be back by then. For now though, to complement their worries they had a casual chat and enjoyed the autumn sunshine wrapped in their jackets on a cold, slightly frosty morning. They then were cut off from continuing their converse when crashed onto the grass afore them was both Harry and Ginny, hands temporarily entwined. Ron and Hermione jumped to their feet, smiles on their faces as they dashed forwards to greet the couple however they stopped dead, their expressions changed to bemusement when Harry and Ginny stood up. Both looked incredibly solemn, even shocked, their hair tousled and a couple of scratches on their faces. Harry's glasses were askew and Ginny's jacket had been torn on one side.

"What on earth happened?" Hermione gasped as the four congregated in the middle of the garden.

"Where's everyone else?" Harry asked them, his voice hoarse.

"In the living room why?" Ron asked him confusedly, a deeply puzzled expression on his freckled face.

"Need to tell you something…" Ginny moaned as Harry took her by hand towards the back door of the house, Ron and Hermione promptly followed them through the kitchen and into the living room.

There sat the remainder of the Weasley family who also, it appeared, to be in mid-conversation when Ginny and Harry, shortly followed by Ron and Hermione, waded in. Like Ron and Hermione's faces had done on first sight, the room became an exhibit of shock. Before any of them could ask what had happened Ginny cut across them coldly; "No questions. Just listen to what we have to say."

Harry gestured from Ron and Hermione to take a seat which they did beside George on the sofa.

"What is it then?" Charlie, who had been playing a game of Wizard's Chess with his father on the coffee table slumped onto his ankles as he asked this.

Harry and Ginny then launched into the tale about what had happened at Agri Pene fields. With the necessary 'oohs' and 'ahs' in place, they were able to explain about how the Death Eaters had been broken out by Onya, her men and Draco who had appeared to of betrayed McKinnon. They also told them how Amycus Carrow and Lucius Malfoy were killed in action alike the ten Aurors who Draco and Onya had murdered. They finished up their story by explaining how Percy's leg was broken in several places and that Kingsley had been able to take him straight to St Mungo's for immediate attention. At this point Mrs Weasley whimpered at news of her son being badly injured however she was drowned out by an array of questions shot at Harry and Ginny from the others.

"The Death Eaters are back?" was all that George could muster as he dropped into the back of the sofa he had been sitting on the edge of.

"Eight escaped. Nine new ones who were originally under Onya's control. Plus Onya herself and Draco. And don't forget McKinnon and Goyle, wherever they are." Harry stated, his eyes focused on the back of the room.

"You think Draco betrayed McKinnon? Left him elsewhere and joined forces with Onya?" Mr Weasley enquired, pushing his horn-rimmed glasses further up his nose.

"Onya's has more power because of her followers…he's seen the number she can kill…he's probably taken sides with her because he thought he'd break out his parents quicker…" Harry replied.

"But then surely McKinnon will be after his blood now?" Bill quizzed Harry.

"Knowing the Death Eaters, especially Yaxley, he'll take her followers and they'll all re-route to McKinnon leaving her powerless…she's just a useless teenage girl in their eyes…Draco will follow them in order to save his own skin…" Harry hypothesised.

"That's probably right…you mentioned his parents? Where was Narcissa at the executions? Surely she should have been up for them?" Hermione catechised to murmurs of agreement from the others.

"Kingsley told me afterwards she was still remanded in custody, she's been placed back in solitary confinement again…they've relaxed her punishment as it was a one-off thing, she didn't kill me so doesn't deserve death…she was never a Death Eater and the executions called for the deaths of only Death Eaters. I guess the Ministry can't contradict they're own laws." Harry explained.

"I guess that's true…so she'll just stay in Azkaban for now?" Ron quizzed Harry.

"They're going to bump up protection of the prison considering Draco might try and break his mum out…they're going to take out every precaution necessary now," Harry began, drawing his vision into the line with the others now, "The Ministry's now expanding its search on McKinnon as he's most likely to gain control of the Death Eaters. The majority of the Auror office will now leave their current assignments to start searching for the missing Death Eaters as it's the biggest threat to government reform and Wizarding World recovery, his words, not mine…"

The Weasleys and Hermione sat in stunned silence however Mr Weasley then piped up, "Bill, Charlie, George…outside with me now…we best set the defensive enchantments back up again…we can't risk anything…they're after Harry…which means we're all in danger…"

As his sons nodded and he stood to exit the living room Harry attempted to apologise as the four Weasley men left the living room to go out into the garden, "I'm sorry…"

Bill, Charlie and George continued to depart the room however Mr Weasley stayed a moment to face Harry, "Don't you dare apologise…it isn't your fault…it's just a precaution…the Ministry are on their case…it's bound to be cleared up soon…don't worry Harry…we live our lives normally, let's be ignorant to this threat because without You Know Who, the Death Eaters are nothing," Mr Weasley patted Harry on the shoulder, "Be brave. I know you can. Thank you again for saving my daughter. Look after her." Mr Weasley winked at Harry as he left the room leaving Harry to grapple with the oncoming flow of tears he wanted to eject.

"I…I…need…go…room…" Harry mumbled before racing up the spiral staircase on the other side of the living room, when up the steps he turned into his and Ron's room and jumped onto the bed. There he began to sob, a million different thoughts ran through his head at top speed, he couldn't handle them.

He closed his eyes and suddenly images flickered in and out of his mind of various events that had occurred recently. He saw flashes of green, McKinnon's face looming in and out, his wand aloft screaming Killing curses…there was Onya and Draco, teamed up, back to back firing spells at innocent wizards who cried as they dropped to the ground dead…there was Yaxley in a furious duel with Percy…next minute Percy crashed to the ground, rolling in pain, holding his leg. Kingsley had Lucius under his foot, blood started to drip out of various cuts on Lucius' body that created a puddle of dark red around him…Harry then felt himself drift face first into the blood, he felt it, warm and wet, drenching his face…he began to drown in it, his whole body consumed…the image changed. He saw flashbacks of the war…he saw Mrs Weasley defending Ginny, firing curses at Bellatrix Lestrange who laughed hysterically…he then saw Fred, stone dead, lay on the ground the ghost of his last laugh still etched on his freckled face…there was Colin, being carried through the Great Hall…on the ground, lay next to one another was Remus and Tonks, their hands close to one another… The image then flicked to a sandy shore beside the crashing waves of the sea…the sand was damp and muddy as Harry saw weak and trembling, traipsing towards him the dawdling house-elf, Dobby…a knife through his heart, blood everywhere… He was then in the sky at fast speed…there was a dark sky, masked Death Eaters flying around on broomsticks firing Killing Curses here and there…Hedwig was hit in her cage, she fell to the bottom of it…the side car dropped, Harry was forced to blow it up…

They had won…he had protected him but then she appeared…she struck him with a flash of green…he fell backwards…into the Veil…he floated upwards into it…into nothing…he had disappeared… forever…dead…Sirius… Falling…falling…from the top of the Astronomy Tower, his arms spread out and flapping like a rag doll in mid-air…he looked broken, defeated…the light in his bright blue eyes had faded out…his half-moon spectacles went askew, his long silver hair whipped back…Dumbledore… The image then changed…it was dark, dingy…the floorboards creaked…blood was everywhere…he moaned, tears in his eyes…those unforgettable black pupils' life went out…Severus… There was a flash of green…a drawn out scream by a woman…a man was instructing her to go…to save the boy…the man in the cloak told her 'Not to be stupid…' as he held up his wand…her red hair danced as she flopped to floor…the man in the cloak was close to Harry now, the wand in his hand directed at him… He knew what he must do… he pressed his lips to the Snitch…_ 'I open at the close'…_ they were there, all of them…they stood there, silvery and shiny…they gave him advice, said it was going to be okay…he trusted them…the forest was dark…in the clearing there they stood…the man in the cloak from so long ago surrounded by his followers…tied to a tree was Hagrid who shouted for Harry to go…he didn't…Voldemort, his white face loomed, his long fingers wrapped around the Elder wand…his red-eyes flickered with hatred…the mouth moved but no words came out…the wand directed at him, Harry… there was a flash of green light…he fell…to the floor…the ground was hard, he smelt the grass…everything was gone…

"No," Harry muttered opening his eyes, removing his head from the pillow he had been smothering himself with to turn over onto his back and stare up at the ceiling, "Not again. Never again."

"Harry?" It was Ron. His head poked out the gap in the door which he had silently revolved on its hinges. "I just managed to get out. Mum's panicking, wants Ginny to stay in her sights. Hermione and Fleur are helping out to make dinner. Dad and the others are still setting up the enchantments…can I come in?"

"Yeah…" Harry replied simply, his voice sounded a little strange to him.

Ron closed the door behind him as he jumped onto his own bed facing Harry with an expression which mixed confused with a dose of worry and paranoia. Harry tried to avoid his sympathetic stare.

"Are you okay?"

Harry snapped back quickly, "What do you think?!"

"Sorry…stupid question…it's just what you say though I guess…" Ron looked disappointed with himself for being ridiculous.

"I shouldn't of snapped…" Harry shook his head.

"It's fine…this was bound to affect you more than anyone…they're after you after all…again…" Ron was unsure what to say and Harry knew this noticing his repetitive pauses and awkwardness in his voice.

"I'm used to it…everything's going to be fine isn't it?" Harry tried to lighten up, he cracked a grimace.

"I've got no idea…You Know Who's gone isn't he? The Death Eaters aren't as much as a threat now I guess? That's kind of a positive."

"I guess so, yeah…I'm alright about it all though…"

"Really?"

"No…"

A new day. The living room saw the Weasley family, Hermione and Harry vacate it post-breakfast drinking mugs of Pumpkin juice and chatting quietly to one another. Ginny beside Harry, keeping a close eye on him as he finished reading the Daily Prophet's main article on the front page. The headline read; _'DEATH EATERS ESCAPE EXECUTIONS!' _ Below the bold banner of text was a collage of moving images that depicted the eight Death Eaters that had managed to escape. Harry flicked to page three to read the full article by Xenophilius Lovegood;

_'Yesterday morning, at Agri Pene fields in the countryside of South Wales, the ten convicted Death Eaters who have recently taken residence deservedly at both Azkaban and Nurmenguard Prisons, were lined up prepared for their long-awaited executions. However, once the Minister for Magic; Kingsley Shacklebolt ordered for the Killing Curses to be created the ten Death Eaters were released of their bonds by the Aurors assigned to them. It appeared though that they were all in fact the nine followers of Onya Lewis plus Draco Malfoy. Speculation has been made that seeing Lewis appear along with the Aurors on the perimeter, that Malfoy has betrayed Jeremiah McKinnon in order to join forces with Lewis. Whereabouts of McKinnon and sidekick Gregory Goyle are also unknown but it is suspected that Lewis will be abandoned and that the newly escaped prisoners will take sides with him._

_Once the Death Eaters had been released from their bonds Malfoy created a large shield charm which protected them from harm and as one by one they Disapparated to the same location, Shacklebolt and co-Minister Percy Weasley attempted to penetrate it with two Aurors. In the meantime eight Aurors attacked the newly revealed Onya Lewis who killed three of them. Malfoy after being left with only Yaxley, Fenrir Greyback, Amycus Carrow and his own father for back up, ran to her aid. The two Aurors helping the Ministers were easily killed by Carrow and Greyback. Draco was then seen murdering three more of the Aurors as Carrow also joined the fight. Greyback however cornered none other than the girlfriend of Harry Potter; Ginny Weasley! It appeared Potter had been invited to the executions and was seen running to protect the two Aurors fighting the three Death Eaters. Carrow killed one as the other protected Harry and ending up killing Carrow himself. Potter then dashed back to save his beloved Ginny as Greyback Disapparated. The remaining Auror was then killed. Draco went to help his father who battled Shacklebolt and Yaxley who fought Weasley. Harry followed him as Ginny battled Onya. Shacklebolt then killed Lucius, Draco broke Weasley's leg and Disapparated with Yaxley, Onya later Disapparated too. Apart from Weasley his sister Ginny, Minister Shacklebolt and Harry Potter are all unharmed._

_The majority of the Auror Office have now been ordered on behalf of the Ministers to disband their current workloads to allow them to concentrate on a wide spread search for all the Death Eaters. The Aurors will plaster every available piece of wall, window and noticeboard with wanted posters before visiting each and every wizarding home in the country for information and leads. The Ministry has ordered a preliminary sentence of twenty years for anyone trying to conceal information or the Death Eaters themselves. If anyone knows anything let it be rumour or fact, the Ministry will grant a small reward of 100 Galleons for anyone who gives any news to Ministry ASAP. It has also been issued, to be finalised with other legislations in a document to be posted to all next week, precautions for every household. The latter should be provided with basic protective enchantments however former professors and ex-pupils of Hogwarts School, Ministry employees, former members of the Order of the Phoenix, Muggle borns and half-bloods should be warned to put up full-proof enchantments around their homes and interrogate anyone new who enters the house with a personal question or two. At the moment Kingsley Shacklebolt states these requirements are not permanent yet do need to be undertaken as soon as possible just in case. The Minister for Magic also addressed the nation with this message;_

_"Do not worry. You see, worry is an example of fear and the problematic thing concerning the matter of fear, worry and even anxiety is exploitation. And do you understand that? Fear can be exploited mainly because of the things that it is able to do to one's mind. Worry damages confidence, it brings about paranoia which clouds decision making and the ability to see the actual reality of what's going. Worry, fear whatever you may call it is a distraction, a disease that holds us back, that restricts us from being able to think straight and remain sane. Worry allows exploitation because of the things, and if this exploitation comes from that of someone under the influence of evil and darkness then worry then becomes a threat. A threat to both yourself and the others around you because of distraction and destroyer of confidence and willingness. Evil is able to worm itself into the pit of worry and grow and grow creating more fear and more anxiety which therefore allows the evil to make an impact. Because if you are worried for one moment, one single moment, then you could lose lives…because it only takes one moment for someone to die…just one. And if evil is seep through your thin visage of increasing fear, it will able to strike and take lives from you. What I am trying to say my dear people is not to worry. Because this Ministry, this establishment, will do everything in its power and more to find the Death Eaters and punish them for their crimes! If you are unable to remove your worry then place it onto something which deserves it, something in more danger than you, someone who can accept your pity and your love and turn it against the evil…HARRY POTTER! The bravest man I have ever known, walked into the face of death after years of near escape and years of horror, death and so many dreadful things…he walked to it, head held high…and these Death Eaters want him! Not you, no, him. And so we should protect him with not our worry but our love because I know, I know, a great man once told me that love is the most powerful thing in this world and we should use it well! I will do everything, everything in my power to overcome the oncoming danger and thwart with every breath in my body because I will move heaven and earth to destroy these Death Eaters! I would do anything to stop the evil spreading! You must not worry! YOU MUST LOVE!"_

_God Speed Harry Potter, let the people of this world unite in your hour of need as the scum of this world attempt to thwart you once more, and this time we shall be ready. No magical blood will be spilt, instead we shall stand at arms and prepare for the Death Eaters return where they shall fall again. Without You Know Who, they don't stand a chance._

_Written by Xenophilius Lovegood – Editor.'_

"We carry on."

Harry folded the Daily Prophet in two, placing it upon the arm of the sofa as he noticed Mr Weasley raise from his armchair and speak these words. Immediately, having broken the eerie silence of the living room, its occupants now turned to watch the head of the clan.

"Forget the dark forces who attempt to penetrate our defences and focus on the present, on the happiness…Voldemort is dead…without him the Death Eaters have no back-bone, no fear factor and their ultimate power weakened dramatically. We should not fear the rise of the defeated but pity them as they try to regain back what they once had," Mr Weasley began adjusting his askew horn-rimmed spectacles, "Instead let us continue to live our lives and forget this, put it to the back of our minds, why not be happy? I make it now, that I allow any of you, any of you to share something. Anything, thoughts, feelings or news, we all have secrets…it's time we shared them…"

Charlie rose from his place in the living room and trudged to the front of it facing the others who eyed him with bemused looks mixed with some anticipation at what he was due to announce to the family.

"For six months now I have lived in this house doing nothing whatsoever useful and in that time been unable to gain any money because I haven't been to work. Eventually we'll all have to return to work when they are back up and running because without it how else will we function as we need money to eat, clothe and so on… Now, is my time to return to the threshold of it all because all the way back in Romania, it turns out the pens are back up and running. The majority of the workforce have returned from mourning and set the camp back up and have started to bring new dragons in every day," Charlie delved into his jacket pocket and removed a roll of parchment, "I received it the other day, it asks me to return to work as soon as possible and I think now would be the best time to grasp this opportunity and get back to where I truly belong. I miss the dragons and they miss me, by this time next week I'll be on my way back to Romania."

Charlie then returned to his seat to be duly replaced by George who rubbed the hole on the side of his head soothingly as he coughed to begin talking;

"Few weeks ago the, err, Diagon Alley officials got in touch with me just to inform me on the current situation on what's been going on there. Apparently the shop owners along with a load of the public have been returning to the Alley and started to fix up the buildings and rebuild everything. Business has started up again and shopkeepers like Ollivander have started to sell their new or existing stock mostly by owl order. They've asked me, considering Fred's death, whether I was closing down Weasley's Wizard Wheezes however I replied otherwise. I plan to reopen the shop and this now, what I'm doing is to ask something…of someone…because I need a business partner to help my restart the business," George turned to his youngest brother with a look of need, "Ron, I'd like you to help me…"

Ron opened his eyes wide in shock as his brother asked him to reopen the joke shop with him, "Erm, well…" Ron exchanged glances with Hermione, Harry and Ginny who all respectively nodded at him, small smiles on their faces, "Yeah…yeah…course, yes I will." George, as he went to sit back down went to Ron and they exchanged a prolonged hand-shake and pat on the back. The others in the room smiled as they saw Ron agree to George's plea. As George settled himself down next to his brother and began to immediately converse in hushed whispers as Ginny, to Harry's surprise, rose from her seat to the front of the room. She then announced what Harry already knew, the story of how Percy had now become engaged to a woman named Audrey to the squeals of delight by Mrs Weasley and a shocked eruption of cheers from everyone else. It was then the turn of Bill and Fleur who, hand in hand, stood in front of the others with awkward smiles.

"Erm, well our news is a little more delicate I guess…" Bill announced, "You see, erm, well, sad as it is that we lost little Teddy the other day the thing is, the Burrow's going to have yet another addition…"

Mrs Weasley's face lit back up, Mr Weasley had an awkward expression on his face as Fleur got the courage to speak up; "It zeems…I am two months pregnant…"

Fleur's sentence then cued a mass of cheers, clapping and squeals of delight as Bill and Fleur were swarmed by the Weasleys and Hermione who buzzed with excitement at this news. Through the thicket of red haired people, Harry locked eyes with Bill and mouthed; "Congratulations", Harry smiled weakly as Bill nodded mouthing his thanks. The thing was Harry could not bear to withstand the excitement and the buzz of Fleur's pregnancy as his mind was dirtied with the thoughts of the Death Eaters and the fear they possessed over him and so he decided to escape the living room and up the spiral staircase.

Throughout the course of the family's revelations Harry had found himself trapped within in his own thoughts. He heard everything that had been expressed between the Weasleys however it had sounded like distant echoes at the back of Harry's head and he was unable to see the rest of the room. Instead of seeing George and Charlie and so on, all Harry saw were flashes of images in his mind once again. Alike the previous day he saw pictures flick by of the deaths of loved ones, looming images of Voldemort and McKinnon, daydreams of his own murder and flashbacks of the breakout. The screams and cries of incantations, flashes of green and red light buzzed around in Harry's head leaving it hurting, when Harry took to his feet he felt dazed and dizzy. He swayed slightly on the spot as he trudged up the stairs, thoughts of the Death Eaters drifting in and out of his head. The fears of what could be burned his head as he heard far away the buzzes of excitement at the prospect of a new Weasley. Harry was left to crash onto his bed again, thoughts whizzing around his head.

All that ran through Harry's head were questions, questions and more questions. Where were the Death Eaters? How many more had joined them? What were they planning to do? What were they doing at the moment? How long would it take for them to get to him? Would they attack any of the Weasleys or Hermione? Who would they kill next? Did they have any plans, any theories or any speculations about Voldemort? If there was a chance to bring him back or would they just carry out a revolution, an act of revenge? Harry was lost, the others were too busy fussing over a engagements, babies, shops and so on when there were so many other things to concentrate on. Voldemort's body still lay unpreserved in a lone chamber cut off from the remains of Hogwarts and still had not incinerated by the Ministry. At that moment Harry's biggest and worst fear was that the Death Eaters might possibly try and break out Voldemort's body and do something with it whatever it might be. Harry knew this was unlikely to be carried out effectively considering the security surrounding the perimeter but with McKinnon and Yaxley now spearheading the Death Eaters anything was likely to happen and it scared Harry. It scared him too much, Harry found himself shaking with nervousness, dripping in cold sweat as his fear rose and paranoia grew…he couldn't come back could he? It was impossible. All seven pieces of his soul had been completely and utterly destroyed using extraordinary uses of magic and above all had been finished off with his own Killing Curse which had been amplified by Harry being the Master of Death. It was too much…he couldn't lie there anymore…he jumped up onto his feet as the bedroom door swung open.

"Harry?" It was Ron again, "What's up, mate?"

"I'm going to the Ministry, to Kingsley right now." Harry replied instantaneously picking up his wand from the bedside table.

"What?!" Ron exclaimed.

"I've got to go, now. The Death Eaters, Ron, they're getting to me." Harry stated walking back to the centre of the room and tightening the grip on his wand.

"I don't understand."

"I might be being paranoid but I've got to get this sorted now."

"Get what sorted?" Ron asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Voldemort."

"What about him? He's dead?"

"He's still in the chamber, the Ministry haven't incinerated him yet. That needs to be done otherwise…" Harry rambled before Ron interrupted him.

"Otherwise what?!"

"The Death Eaters…they'll get to him, get him out…they might, try something, anything…"

"Harry, stop it! Stop thinking like that!"

"No, I've got to go!"

As Harry turned on his heel to Disapparate Ron rushed forwards and grabbed hold of Harry's shirt as they both disappeared from the bedroom, an echo of Ron's voice was left behind; "HARRY!"


	21. Employment Strikes Disaster

"Ouch!" Ron cried, "Security's lax, we were able to Apparate straight in here?!"

Harry felt his legs buckle and his knees smack against the cold concrete floor as the feeling of being squeezed through a tight rubber tube wore off and his lungs were allowed to take in breath. He opened his eyes and adjusted his glasses as he stood back up, wand aloft and took in his surroundings. The Atrium was in mid-repair but seemingly empty, graffiti had almost been rubbed off the walls however an array of wanted posters for both Harry and Death Eaters hung on the walls ripped or vandalised. Large chunks of rubble from the walls and floor along with shards of glass from the chandelier had been swept to one side of the room. The statue of Muggles being crushed had been knocked down just leaving a bleak platform in the centre of the vast room. Harry spotted as he revolved on the spot a hanging sign on a scratched wooden door which read; _'Kingsley Shacklebolt – Minister for Magic' _and below this sign was a slightly smaller one which read; _'Percival Weasley – Deputy _ _Minister'_. Harry saw in the corner of his eye Ron also adjusting to his surroundings rubbing his sore knees and as Harry rotated in a circle he heard a voice nearby call his and Ron's name.

"Harry? Ron?"

The voice sounded familiar, that of a young woman's, slightly dreamy and soft. It was Luna Lovegood.

Harry turned rapidly on the spot to source out whereabouts Luna's voice came from and then he saw her, etches of old battle scars still on her pale face, her eyes slightly unfocused and a radish dangling from each ear. A necklace of Butterbeer corks around her neck and she was wearing a summery, yellow dress at knee length. Her arm had currently been entwined with a man, her father; Xenophilius Lovegood. There he stood in robes of navy blue, strange symbols across his shawl and hung around his neck was the symbol…the symbol of the Deathly Hallows…Harry tried to ignore this as the mention of Harry's name made him turn his head towards them with a look of surprise, also some scars still on his face. Directly beside Luna and her father were Percy and Kingsley in dark robes of velvet, violet and green, in the latter's hands a roll of parchment with the Ministry of Magic logo imprinted on it in red wax. Kingsley and Percy shot Harry and Ron bemused looks as Luna untangled herself from her father and rushed forwards to Harry and Ron. She embraced Harry in a tight hug.

"Harry! I missed you!"

"You too Luna, I missed you too…" Harry muttered almost apologetically, knowing she realised his need to be released and continue forwards. So she let him go and gave Ron a quick hug as well, as she let go she gave Harry a smile; "What's wrong Harry? Why are you here?"

Harry, instead of replying continued his walk towards to the two Ministers and Xenophilius, Ron eventually also trudged towards them with Luna close by, Harry could tell Ron was mumbling what he thought was going on to her. Then Harry reached the three men.

"Harry? What are you doing here?" Kingsley asked him in his slow, deep voice.

"I need you to do something for me…for everyone…" Harry started, a little exasperated after his rushed Disapparition. He also was holding back some anger against Ron who had forced his way through with him, Harry ignored the pain in his back where Ron had grabbed him.

"Leg all better Perce?" Ron called.

"Yes, everything repaired and what is it Harry?" Percy enquired adjusting his glasses.

"I know this is going to sound mad…paranoid…but you need to get rid of Voldemort's body!" Harry exclaimed catching his breath.

"Why so desperate Harry? You know it's a work in progress." Percy replied confused.

"I know, I know but it's been six months now! Ignore the fact that McKinnon had control of the government, the first thing you should of done when you two came into power was to burn Voldemort!"

"Harry, what are you so worried about?" Kingsley put a hand on his shoulder, "He's dead. You said yourself, something about his soul being totally obliterated?"

"Yes, yes but still, listen to me!" Harry was beginning to shout now to the mere shock of Xenophilius and Luna, Ron remained still as Percy took a step back.

"What are you frightened of Harry? He can't surely be resurrected it's impossible!" Xenophilius had now joined in trying to reassure Harry's fears.

"The Death Eaters!" Harry began, "They've had access to everything! Here, Hogwarts…the things they could of found…there still might be a way! If they try to get Voldemort's body and succeed gawd knows what will happen!" Harry was beginning to become frantic again, his clenched fists filled with cold sweat.

"No, Harry…Hogwarts is completely protected no way can the Death Eaters access it! The amount of defensive spells and the number of Aurors on guard is stronger than Azkaban ever was! The Death Eaters are weak, they wouldn't stand a chance!" Kingsley told him sternly.

"Let's say they did get Voldemort's body!" Harry was rambling again, he saw flashes of green in his head, he tried to shake it off, "There's got to be theories out there! Experimentations, records, documents, wizards…whatever! They'll be some way….!"

"Harry…" it was Luna who Harry rounded on as a flicker of Voldemort's face flashed in front of him, "You said yourself way back when…his soul's gone isn't it? I mean he doesn't have a ghost does he?"

Harry realised his stupidity, his childishness and knew he had become reckless, tactless. Voldemort was gone, Dumbledore explained that at King's Cross…the child…

"I'm sorry," Harry rubbed his forehead and adjusted his glasses, the images died and faded into the darkness of his mind, "Voldemort's soul was split seven ways and I used extraordinary magic to destroy six of them, the last resided in myself and that part of his soul is now trapped in limbo, stunted. Because of the crimes against humanity he committed he's banned from becoming a ghost even though he had an extreme fear of death."

"I don't understand then, Harry…" Ron had piped up, "If…Voldemort," Harry gave him a look of astonishment at Ron's first mention of the name, "is trapped then what else can we do? Each part of his soul is destroyed, he's been forced to be stunted in limbo as he doesn't deserve an afterlife. Why so worried?"

"I don't know…" Harry started to tremble at the mouth a little, "I'm just…just scared…so, scared…" tears dripped from his eyes as Luna walked forwards and put her arm around him.

"Don't be scared. Fear leaves us no hope. And without hope we can't see the truth. You're safe now Harry," She said comfortingly, "The worst thing that could happen to you is that you'd have your house infested with Nargles."

"What are Nargles?" Harry choked as he wiped up his tears.

They both burst into laughter, Harry could see Ron give him a grin as he hugged Luna again.

As they separated Harry faced Kingsley who said, "Top priority. Voldemort's body to be burnt as soon as. Just listen to me though, Harry. Don't worry." He gave him a sharp wink.

Ron joined the circle as Harry mopped the rest of his tears up before asking, "So, Luna what are you doing here?"

Xenophilius answered for the both of them, "Ah…you see Mr Shacklebolt here was just presenting myself with an award for services to the Magical Community!"

Harry noticed Ron nodded, looking vaguely impressed, "You see Mr Lovegood here has produced some lovely pieces in the Daily Prophet and I thought it time to present him with what he deserved." Kinsley explained.

"Yeah, I've been reading every issue Mr Lovegood," Ron said sarcastically, Harry refrained from guffawing.

"Congratulations, sir!" Harry acknowledged Luna's father who smiled.

"Thank you, but please, call me Xenophilius." He simpered tossing his hair the texture of candy floss to one side showing off a couple of gold teeth in his mouth.

"Ah, Harry, Ron, I almost forgot!" Percy jumped in, "Hermione, her parents! The Australian Ministry have located them and going to bring them into their Ministry and recognising her talent they've invited her to go over a undo the charm herself!"

"Excellent, thanks for that Percy, we'll tell her when we get back," Ron thanked his brother before continuing, "By the way, everyone said well done on your engagement and Fleur's pregnant!"

"You're Joshing me?" Percy laughed, "Never knew Bill had it in him," Ron burst into a short run of laughter as Percy carried on, "And I heard you're going to be setting up the shop with George?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be great! I'm really looking forward to it but how did you…?"

"Owl, the other day. So not interested in finishing up school?" Percy gave a sarcastic tut.

"Nah…Hermione's considering it though. Once Hogwarts is up and running she said she'll go back to do her NEWTS and that before getting a job here. So we're sorted…just leaves Harry I guess." Ron went on.

"What she interested in doing? We can always save a spot for her and we can easily sort Mr Potter here." Kingsley chuckled.

"Not sure, I'll get her to contact you." Kingsley nodded.

Harry piped up, "Really?"

"Oh yes…some of our best Aurors are gone, there's free space for a few including you, Harry." Kingsley smirked as Harry's eyes widened in disclosure.

"I can be an Auror? That's what I've always wanted to be!" Harry giggled slightly in disbelief, _'I can be an Auror?! Wow…' _he thought.

"Yeah…nothing too serious at the moment…"

"Wait! Hold on!" Harry interrupted, Kingsley, "I can start now?!"

"Of course," Percy started, "No real work yet for a good while especially with what's going on but officially from now on you're an Auror, a free-lance Auror, Harry!"

Harry was unable to produce a sentence, instead because of his immense disbelief he was left spluttering random phrases, "T-thanks…I mean…wow…really?...I can't…what?...Auror…"

"Well, I think we best be off, mum will go mental if she knows we're gone." Ron interrupted taking Harry by the shoulder.

"Oh, hang on!" Percy cried as Ron set to Disapparate, "Let me go and get the details on Hermione's parents!"

Ron nodded firmly with a smile as Percy dashed off towards his and Kingsley's office. In the meantime Ron and Harry made their goodbyes, a hand-shake with Kingsley and Xenophilius and a kiss on the cheek from Luna which again was highly unexpected of her. Harry knew it was probably down to the fact that she had missed them and was becoming more comfortable around boys now. Harry glimpsed at Percy set to open the office door however his look of intrigue soon turned to horror. Before Percy was able to open up the door it came crashing open and out bounded a hooded figure who slashed its wand at Percy who was sent flying backwards onto the stone floor.

The figure, Harry noticed, had a bundle of parchment which it stuffed into its pocket, as they did this there was a cry of outrage from Ron who raced forwards his wand aloft shortly followed by a sombre Kingsley. Xenophilius backed up with Luna protected behind his arms, his wand held delicately between index finger and thumb twirling it, a serious look on his face. Luna looked simply horrified and exchanged shocked glances with Harry who nodded, gulped and also charged at the mystery wizard or witch with his wand.

Kingsley overtook Ron as the masked wizard rushed across the Atrium before coming to a halt and swinging his wand overhead and firing a clever trip jinx at the stranger's legs so that they dropped to the ground and slid slightly. However, as Kingsley marched forwards to strike another blow the stranger recuperated and was able to pick up their wand and shoot a blast of energy that flung Kingsley face first into the ground knocking him unconscious.

The stranger now jumped back onto their feet however before they were able to turn on their heel and Disapparate, Ron had now reached them, "Rictumsempra!" the stranger was quick though and reflected back the charm which Ron cleverly ducked. The stranger then replied with her own failed stunning curse which Ron rebounded onto a poster of Harry which dropped to ground. Ron was forcing the mystery wizard backwards towards where Xenophilius grasped his wand tightly and directed it at the stranger's back.

However, in one fluid movement the stranger deflected another stunning curse from Ron back onto him so he was sent crashing into the floor, when the stranger did this they also span on the spot and Disarmed Xenophilus. Then the mysterious wizard used a spell to move Xenophilius to one side before tripping him over onto his back. The stranger then prepared to Apparate however Harry was nearly near to them now as Luna attempted to hex whoever it was.

"CONFRINGO!" Luna screamed however the mystery wizard was too quick and with a flash of light fired a silent stinging jinx at Luna's shoulder which ripped with a deep cut and oozed blood which dripped onto the floor. Harry had now reached them and jumped and as he jumped he shot a spell at the stranger's left shoulder knocking them slightly back, one into the face and as he slid on his side he finally was able to shoot a spell which sent it onto its back. He then pushed himself up onto his feet and held his wand upward and stood beside Luna who gasped as the stranger got back up and readjusted their mask to cover the bit of face showing. Luna and Harry then were engaged in a battle of non-verbal curses with the masked figure cueing a display of furious sparks and showers of bright light which caused some physical damage. Harry ended up covered in more scratches and cuts, some of his old burn wounds opened up, the bandages on his injured hand peeled off revealing what he hadn't seen yet. It was mottled, black and red all over the most serious of the burns. Beside him he saw Luna's dress tear in various places flecks of blood splatter onto her face from various parts. She had a cut lip which she ignored as she screwed up her face in dangerous combat. Then, Harry heard the stranger cry in a mysteriously gruff female voice; "SECTUMSEMPRA!" Though it had been altered the voice sounded familiar but Harry didn't have chance to speculate who it was as the curse hit him full on in the stomach.

His old tissue wound from the events at Hogsmeade was ripped open and immediately began to spew lots of blood onto the floor and all over Harry's clothes. He collapsed to the ground, dropping his wand and grabbed his stomach where the scar had been torn open, his hands were instantly drenched in crimson as the stranger lowered their wand in a fit of high pitched laughter. Luna dropped down to Harry to see what the damage was, he moaned and cried as more and more blood was flushed out of him, the pain was unbearable. He felt his nerves tingling with immense pain as he Luna began to cradle him, she began to be drenched in his blood too. The familiar sounding witch walked towards them, wand now back up and trained on Luna's head. Harry saw through his tear filled eyes the witch heighten the wand threateningly and through the mask cry; "Avada Kedavra!"

Just in time, Harry was able to grab Luna and jump aside from the bolt of green which ruptured part of the concrete floor where they had been moments before. Harry lifted up his wand weakly as the witch neared him, wand aloft again, Harry could hear Luna behind him whimpering in fear.

"I thought you were taken Potter? Why do you protect her?"

"Because she's my friend!" Harry spat back at the witch's remark, his hand trembling.

"So be it…Avada Ke…!"

"Not on my watch!"

The witch span around as Harry and Luna focused their eyes on the latter's father, Xenophilius, who stood with his wand now pointing at the witch's heart. He gave her a quick smile, "Don't dare touch my daughter!"

"Bring it!" the witch deftly swung a stunning curse at Xenophilius' shoulder knocking him down to the ground, as he slid on his back he tried to disarm the stranger who blocked it but on second attempt her wand flew into the air. As her wand circled and danced in mid-air she rounded on Xenophilius who was set to stand on his feet when the witch from the depths of her robes drew a flash of silver which struck Xenophilius' leg. It was a knife, and Xenophilius' leg had been torn open horribly to expel a smattering of blood onto the floor. Luna screamed and jumped up to go to her father however the witch's wand dropped down and she was able to catch in time to fling Luna back near Harry. "Protego!" A shield charm then erupted between Harry and Luna and the witch and Xenophilius. Luna tried desperately to get through it with both her physical form and her wand, Harry also tried to break through it as the witch bent down beside Luna's father.

"Fascinating isn't it? Muggle weaponry? What it can do?" the witch with full force rammed the knife into Xenophilius' shoulder with a cry of agony, Luna was sobbing loudly getting erratic behind the shield as the witch then plunged the knife into Xenophilius' stomach, blood flooded everywhere, "So effective, yet we underrate them, tut, tut."

She then stood up and aimed a heavy kick with her boot into Xenophilius jaw so then he was slammed to the ground with a crunch, crimson flung into the air and splattering with silence. She then kicked him so hard he rolled over onto his front and then back onto his back, she then dropped beside him again and held his head with her left hand, the right hand still held the knife.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Luna repetitively screamed as she hopelessly sent stunning spells into the shield charm with Harry beside her, tears in his eyes, trying everything that came to mind.

"I've got a job to do, and you people keep getting in my way," the witch spoke, she bashed Xenophilius' head into the concrete, he gave out yet another hoarse, blood curdling yelp, "It's time I sent out a message."

The witch then with one fluid movement wielded the knife so that it cut across Xenophilius throat ripping it open before tossing the knife aside, blood spilling out everywhere, a large puddle of it consuming Xenophilius limp, tortured body, he moaned quietly now. The witch then placed her wand between his eyes on the bridge of his nose, Harry went deaf to the world as Luna's issued a drawn out cry and the familiar witch mouthed the incantation. In a flash of green, the light in Xenophilius's eyes went out and he was left to have his head drop dully to the concrete ground. The witch stood up and cackled in a high pitch laugh before deftly kicking the body over as if it was a rag doll before Disapparating into the nothing. The shield charm lifted and Luna rushed to her father's side but Harry knew that the deed was done and no more could be done. Xenophilius Lovegood had been protecting Harry and his daughter and in return had been handed such a cruel death. Luna turned over the corpse to weep over her father's blood drenched body, all Harry could do was stumble aimlessly backwards, shaking covered in cold sweat, tears rolling down his cheeks.

_'He's dead?' _Was all Harry could manage to process through his mind, he didn't know what to do, what to say…Xenophilius was dead…he had died protecting Harry, protecting Luna… Harry felt incredibly queasy as he took a glimpse of the pool of blood circling Luna and her dead father. Harry felt his throat burn with hydrochloric acid as he bent over and gagged as he projectile vomited all over the Atrium floor and collapsed to the ground. Luna's screams echoed around his head as images flickered by in his closed eyes of the mysteriously familiar witch torturing poor Xenophilius…the blood…the green light…

"Harry!" It was Ron, bent down beside him with a comforting arm around him, Harry burst into tears as Ron pulled him onto his feet, as he did this Harry wiped his eyes to see what was going on. In the distance he saw Luna still crying and screaming beside the corpse, Percy had now awoken along with Kingsley and the pair stood over Xenophilius looking incredibly solemn. Ron took hold of Harry's hand.

"No…!" Harry whimpered sounded slightly strangled.

Ron turned on his heel taking Harry with him through the swirls of colour and feeling of breathlessness as a million different thoughts whizzed through Harry's brain. _'Xenophilius is dead…it's my fault…' _he thought hopelessly as he crashed to the floor in the Weasley back garden. Instead of opening his eyes and standing up and taking in the new surroundings, collapsed to the ground in a ball weeping, heaving slightly as he brought up some more sick. Echoes in his head shouted in shock and horror as Ron tried to explain the events at the Ministry, Harry shook violently and covered his sick and tear covered face as he felt the others come near him. He didn't know what to do.

For the next three days in the Burrow, Harry found himself lay down facing the ceiling on his bed in Ron's room, the door locked during the course of the day. The majority of facial cuts and scars healed and closed up with fresh skin and the deep tissue wound on his stomach had been stitched up. The only person Harry allowed in apart from Ron was his sister, Ginny, who tended to sit beside Harry's bed and look at him as he slept, talked or breathed. Their meals were brought up by Ron and the pair of them sat in eerie silence for those days eating what they had though Harry ate little. For the three days Harry barely spoke a word to anyone, every time he tried to string a sentence together something washed over him to left him stuttering. It had been Ron who had taken on the responsibility on explaining what had happened at the Ministry along with Ginny, Harry had just managed to tell her on the first day in length. However, it was also cleared up by the Daily Prophet the morning after, but as Harry noticed when given the paper, he and Ron were not mentioned, Kingsley had made sure of this. The paper already had started speculating who the killer was, the most obvious being that of Onya Lewis. On first mention of this name Harry managed to issue his speculation which agreed with that of the Prophet. The voice, the demeanour and the act performed were what Onya was capable of and Harry didn't put this murder past her. He had mentioned his theory in a letter he just managed to write to Kingsley who had sent Harry one on the night of the event. It read;

_'Dear Harry,_

_ Xenophilius' body has been examined and cleaned at St Mungo's Hospital and now preserved with magic to be later buried at a private funeral later this week. Luna herself has managed to organise the funeral itself and is issuing invites soon, she has also done all the paperwork concerning her father's death and has been unable to go home. Now she has cleared everything up she wishes to return to her house however the Ministry think it wise if she is to stay with others. Please show this note to Arthur and Molly in order to make a request that Luna can stay with you all at the Burrow. It would be greatly appreciated._

_ Kingsley._

Harry had passed Ron this letter and he had shown it to his parents who quickly replied with an agreement and that next morning Luna arrived and was now staying in Ginny's room with Hermione. Harry had barely ventured out of the bedroom only to go to the toilet and had seen Luna just the once, they had exchanged sombre looks. Ginny you see now stayed in Ron's room on a camp bed beside Harry's bed as she wished to keep an eye on him just in case. Ron did not mind, in all respects he had encouraged this move. It was now Thursday, the fourth day after the death of Xenophilius, approaching tea time, and Harry had been left alone in his and Ron's room as Ginny went to the toilet. So there he lay processing all the thoughts and worries and fears of the last few days through his mind. Again, so many questions flitted about his mind littering it with so many dark, disgusting thoughts. The Death Eaters had already swam through his head making him so frustrated and upset but now there was the imminent danger of death itself looming again. If Onya Lewis could kill Xenophilius Lovegood then what chance did the rest of them have against McKinnon and his men.

Ginny was back and she closed the door behind her and locked it with her wand, Harry dropped his head from looking at a poster of the Chudley Cannons and gave her solemn stare. She gave him a weak smile as she made her way to his bedside, she sat on the vacated part of the bed next to Harry.

"Can I lie down with you?"

"Yeah…"

Ginny then lay down on the bed on her side facing Harry's back, he was turned in the same direction.

"Did you write that letter then last night?" Ginny asked him softly.

"It's on the side…" Harry whispered as Ginny turned back over and took hold of a piece of parchment on the edge of the bedside table, she then turned back over and read the letter aloud.

"_Kingsley, thanks for telling me everything. I hope you will take heed with what I'm about to say but I believe the witch who killed Xenophilius was Onya Lewis. Her voice sounded familiar as well as her manner, body language and definitely the act performed. I hope you investigate this to the best of your abilities. Harry,"_ Ginny put it back before wrapping one arm around Harry, "When are you going to send it?"

"Soon…" Harry mumbled.

"Funeral's Saturday, burying him near their house…you coming along?"

"Yes…"

"Good…and Neville's staying on the sofa here tomorrow night to help Luna on Saturday…"  
"Right…"

Ginny sighed.

"Look at me," As she said this Harry rolled over and faced her, at that moment he wore no glasses they sat on his bedside table, she stroked his face, "You've got such beautiful eyes Harry."

Harry decided to stroke her face back as well as he long red hair he tried to muster a smile, "You're too beautiful…"

"Liar…" she kissed him. And he kissed her back. For the first time in what felt like a long time Harry's dark world lit up with a feeling of ecstasy as his body flooded with endorphins. He put a hand through her hair and smelt her perfume as the kissing began to involve tongues, they kissed like they had never kissed before. It was passionate, so passionate…Harry's right hand caressed her hair as his left made its way down her back…her left hand on his neck the other around his waist…Harry was kissing her lips, her neck…

"I love you Harry Potter…" Ginny said in between kissing.

"I love you too Ginny…" Harry whispered in her ear as the kissing continued.

It was after dinner drinks in the living room of the Burrow, Mrs Weasley had gone to bed along with Bill and Fleur, Charlie according to Hermione was setting off to Romania the next day, pre-booked, so couldn't make the funeral and could be found packing his bag at that time. The living room now left Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna and George. Ginny gave Harry a wink which he replied as Ron finished discussing plugs with his father.

"You feeling better now Harry?" Luna asked him from across the room, this was the first time Harry had seen her properly since the fight at the Ministry. She looked almost similar to how she did on first appearances in the Atrium when Harry had Apparated apart from the various wounds on her face.

"Yeah, thanks Luna and what about you?" Harry replied becoming more sombre now.

"I'm doing…alright I guess…erm, Harry?" she said a little timidly, which was strange for Luna.

"Yes?" Harry asked her kindly, a warm smile on his face.

"Could I have a word in private if that's alright?" her eyes darted temporarily to her best friend who sat beside Harry, her arm entwined around his.

"Don't look at me, ha, ha." Ginny laughed reassuring Luna before releasing Harry who nodded and got up to follow Luna to the staircase. There, Luna turned to him looking more serious again.

"Harry, I'd like you to do me a favour."

"Anything." He confirmed duly.

"On Saturday…I'd like you to say a few words…if that's alright with you?" she raised her eyebrows as Harry gave her a startled look before replying hence.

"Oh…well…yes…yes of course I will…" he rambled a little.

"Thank you…" she hugged him tightly, Harry was sure he heard her sniff and as he let go of her she wiped her eyes as they were full of tears.

"Don't cry…he's in a happier place now…" Harry, unsure of what to say to comfort his friend, mumbled.

She cried a little, "I know…I know…"

"Don't get upset Luna…hey, you'll see Neville tomorrow." Harry winked, Luna laughed a bit and nodded jerkily.

"Yeah…" Harry now looked pleased with himself, he had accomplished being able to master his own emotions in order to settle Luna, "Come on, let's go back in?"

"Just one more thing." She said, a little more perked up now wiping off her tears, "I talked to Ginny before…"

"What about exactly?" Harry reacted immediately.

"I don't think I've ever seen her like this. Now is a time to stay strong and be happy and you're making her so happy. When you weren't around she was so low, she was in a dark place, Harry. Promise me, you won't leave her ever again?"

"I promise." Harry agreed slumping against the stair bannister as Luna headed back into the living room, Harry caught Ginny's eye, she smiled at him, he smiled back.

Next minute, none other than Charlie bounded down the stairs to make Harry jump up and wipe the sweat off his brow and stand up still, Charlie looked worried. He stopped beside Harry, a bantam flustered, a piece of parchment clenched in his fist and he passed it to Harry, "Read it!"

Harry shot Charlie a look of confusion as he unfurled what appeared to be an official Ministry letter he read it through aloud;

"_Dear friends, I am deeply sorry to inform you but the confirmed whereabouts of Hermione's parents, Mr and Mrs Granger, seem to have been stolen by Onya Lewis in her murderous raid at the Ministry four days ago. It appears that Lewis may go into contact with Hermione's parents and torture or kill them as an act of vengeance but the Ministry assures their safety as we send out a team of Aurors plus a bigger team in Australia who know where they, to defend Mr and Mrs Granger. Sorry again for this inconvenience. Kingsley and Percy."_

Harry looked up at Charlie who shared Harry's worried look as they both turned to the living room and spotted Hermione, they then exchanged even more paranoid looks as they gulped and walked down the remaining steps and ventured into the living room. Mr and Mrs Granger it seemed were in mortal peril.


	22. Neville And The Funeral

That night Hermione fled immediately to the Ministry of Magic without a second glance of the letter and barely a word, she forcibly allowed Ron to accompany her. So, the both of them Disapparated in the back garden Ron eyeing Hermione worriedly, a bemused expression on his face whereas she looked into space, blank looking a tear in her eye. The rest of the Weasleys, Harry and Luna watched them go, all of them in shock unsure of what to say, they were slightly baffled but more scared. After the events in the Atrium the other day all were now terrified at what would happen next and at that moment especially Mr and Mrs Granger. Kingsley didn't seem too sure in his letter about things, he knew the whereabouts of Hermione's mum and dad were missing but Harry had seen Onya take quite a bundle of parchment. What else had she taken, Harry had expressed his fears and in return the others worried she might get access to where they lived. After the Grangers would they the Weasleys be in danger? Harry was scared, yes, but it still didn't stop him contemplating how mad it was, the fear behind just one teenage girl. It wasn't right, Harry knew it wasn't right, and so he sat in the living room for the remainder of the day staring at a blank wall. Worries about Hermione and her parents passed through his chain of thought as well as were the Weasleys next on the list, whatever Onya wanted them all for. Hermione and Ron did not return till after tea, they might have been fed and were most likely fine but it still didn't Mr and Mrs Weasley worrying and being paranoid. Ginny sat with him, their happiness once again in ruins, it was on a loop, happiness to misery. Was it going to straighten itself out anytime soon? Would it settle eventually and what would it be? Happiness or misery? Harry wish it sorted itself because his mind was all over the place with both that and everything else that was going on with Onya and the Death Eaters return…things were getting steadily worse. He had told them, everyone, that things weren't going to be good that they were going to get worse and no-one believed him. He had been right, nothing was going to be right for a while yet.

"We're back!"

Everyone that hadn't been in the living room followed both Ron and Hermione who drifted in, their expressions rather vacant as they took seats near Harry and Ginny who suddenly became alert. In shock their previously conjoined hands separated and they turned to the two who had come back.

"What took you so long?" Mrs Weasley asked them.

"Once we got there both Kingsley and Percy weren't around, we had to wait a couple of hours for them to appear. We also had something to eat at the Ministry so take out an hour or so. Sorry." Ron apologised Mrs Weasley shrugged it off.

"What happened? What's being done?" Charlie asked them both, Ron again piped up.

"Large team of the Australian Aurors were already on the case, a load of them have gone straight to Hermione's parents' location and protected the boundaries but they can't go in yet because of the Memory Charm. Kingsley's also sent out a batch of Aurors there too to search the local area to see if Onya's there already and to see if they can catch her. They're also tightening things up over here as well just in case she's still in the country. Both countries are now on red alert and not just because of Mr and Mrs Granger. If things continue every country could be on it." Ron explained a little too quickly, finishing up with a deep breath.

"They're doing all they can…" Hermione muttered slightly timid.

"That's not enough."

All eyes turned on Harry.

"I'm sorry but it's true," he said blatantly, "Defending the boundaries? House to house calls? Searching the streets? I don't know, it just doesn't seem enough."

"Harry, they are doing enough I think, maybe, it's you just want to help and by not helping you think the Ministry aren't doing a good job when they are," Luna told him softly, he gave her a strange look, "Don't worry it's kinda natural."

"I never thought of it like that," Harry mumbled, "Do you think that feeling would go away if I did help?"

"Probably, I wouldn't advise it Harry but if it gets your mind off of things," Luna told him, he nodded surly.

"I'm gonna do it then…I mean…" it dawned on Harry, something so important like that, how did he forget it even after all that happened, "I am an Auror after all."

The others in the room then also suddenly remembered this fact too as Harry stood up, "I'm going to write a letter, right now, to Kingsley, see what I can do help…" Harry sort of smiled as he raced up the spiral staircase and into Ron's room leaving the others wide eyed in disbelief. In the room Harry sat at the desk and took a piece of parchment and wrote his letter, soon enough he acquired the help of Errol the Burrow's home owl to send the letter. Harry seemed rather pleased with himself as he sat on his bed, knowing he could help now, Kingsley couldn't object, he had personally hired Harry to be an Auror. All Harry had to do now was wait for the reply as Ginny waltzed into the room and sat on the bed with him.

"I'm proud of you, doing what you can to help…" Ginny said as she shuffled up to the headboard.

"It's my job now I guess…" Harry laughed popping an arm around her.

"Neville's due to arrive soon, you gonna come down and see him?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, definitely, can't wait. Not seen him for over six months! Long-time…"

"Too long, I've missed him…"

"Who? Me?"

Startled Harry and Ginny cricked their necks as they swung round to see stood at the ajar door, head touching the top of the frame, none other than Neville Longbottom. He had grown a good few inches since Harry had last saw him and all of his bruises and scars had cleared up on his slightly thinner face. All in all it was still Neville stood there in a flesh a wide grin on his face as he bowed his head and walked into the room looking slightly embarrassed as in sat in the chair at the bottom of the bed. Harry and Ginny sat bolt up smiling ear to ear.

"NEVILLE!" they chorused.

"Hi." He mumbled.

"What are you doing here?" Harry quizzed him stupidly.

"I was invited wasn't I?" Neville replied sarcastically.

"No, I meant how? When?" Harry got his words right.

"Oh, about five minutes ago in the garden, saw everyone down there they told me you two were up here so I came straight up."

"It's great to see you Neville!" Ginny exclaimed jumping up and giving Neville a hug before settling back into her original position, they all now faced one another with smiles.

"I didn't interrupt anything did I?" Neville asked them both bashfully going a little red cueing the pair of them to strike up in slightly high voices.

"Oh no…no…" Harry denied.

"Gawd no, definitely…" Ginny mumbled.

"Right." Neville nodded, a little bit in disbelief.

"So, erm, Neville," Harry seemed a little awkward, Neville's accusation had made him a little uneasy now, "How are things?"

"I'd say great if none of this was happening around us. It's mad isn't it, all of this, after all we did, after all we sacrificed six months ago, was just a waste…" Neville acted a bit downtrodden, looking down at his feet.

"Don't be like that Neville, it wasn't for nothing…without the war we wouldn't be stronger than we were? The war's helped the Ministry rebuild and reform as a better place that protects us. I promise nothing will escalate to anything like that again." Harry reassured him, Neville's mention of current affairs distracted Harry from his previous feeling of insecurity and paranoia.

"Anyway…Neville, you said otherwise things were great?" Ginny interrupted trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh yes…" Neville perked back up now, "They are…"

"Well then, spit it out, what's been going on?" Neville looked at them shyly as Harry asked this before replying quietly and slightly embarrassed, "I've got a girlfriend…"

Harry and Ginny's mouths dropped in surprise at this news as Neville blushed again and giggled a little.

"You've got a girlfriend?! Wow! Well done, Neville!" Harry congratulated him.

"Who is she? Anyone we know?" Ginny asked him excitedly.

"It's Hannah Abbott."

Harry looked impressed and Ginny looked simply shocked. Harry remembered Hannah well, she had been in Hufflepuff at Hogwarts and had been a good friend of Ernie MacMillan whose mother had been murdered by the Death Eaters a few years ago. Harry had memories of seeing her racing around pink-faced with that blonde hair firing curses at Death Eaters in the courtyard at Hogwarts. Harry smiled at these heroic thoughts.

"That's marvellous Neville…Hannah's great, we always used to be on good speaking terms…I was so glad to get to know her more in the Battle." Ginny laughed.

"Well, I started talking to her post-Battle, I've always thought she was pretty but she came up to me. Told me how she'd always thought I'd been cute and that she admired my courage for killing Nagini, told me to keep in touch by owl. Sent lots of letters to and from each other…" Neville rambled, "Then we decided to meet up again and things made their way from there…we just happened to be together…"

"Awh…that's dead cute…" Ginny grinned, Harry shook his head chuckling.

"Yeah…moved out of my grandmother's as well." Neville told them.

"Oh, why?" Harry asked.

"Decided to move into a little place not far from her with Hannah…we're living together!" Neville was incredibly pleased, he jiggled on his chair a little.

"That's fantastic!" Ginny cheered.

"And that's not all…I've also been inducted into training to become a professor of Herbology!" Neville almost squealed to the smattering of applause from the other two before Neville settled them, "Well, what's happening in your lives?"

Harry and Ginny then explained how Harry had become an Auror, Ron was to restart Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with George and Hermione was to take her NEWTS when Hogwarts reopened. They also explained how Remus and Tonks' baby Teddy had stayed a short while and that Fleur was pregnant and Charlie was returning to Romania that night. Neville also enquired about Harry and Ginny's relationship which they tried to keep closed up but when Neville asked whether they were in love they giggled and held hands.

"Oh gawd!" Ginny suddenly exclaimed as Neville had been describing the features of the little cottage he and Hannah had found themselves living in, "Harry, I totally forgot to tell you!"

Harry gave her a quick, bemused look as she sifted through her pockets on her jeans as Neville quizzed her, "What's wrong Ginny?"

She had found it, a folded up piece of parchment in her back pocket, she removed it and unfolded it before handing it aloft to Harry who with a quizzical look read it aloud.

"_Dear Miss Weasley, our sources inform us of your highly credible performances of Quidditch in the past few years and they have requested our board to allow their recommendation for induction to be accepted. After a light debate it has been decided with advice from the manager herself that we would like you to become a member of the Holyhead Harpies effective immediately. Once the troubles in this country finish we'd like you to join our ranks ASAP and start on the first team by next season. Yours sincerely, Gwenog Jones – Captain."_

"That's brilliant Ginny!" Harry gave her a tight squeeze as Neville gave a smattering of applause.

In the small hours of the next morning Charlie left for Romania before everyone went to bed to get some sleep before the funeral later on. However, Harry was unable to sleep, a continuing problem that Ginny was aware of so the pair found themselves entwined and under blankets on the sofa. After the clock struck four and the couple had ran out of topics to discuss they heard and witnessed Luna come down the spiral staircase. She had noticed them both as she tip-toed over Neville who had fallen asleep on the carpet a lone blanket and pillow accompanied him. Luna was gestured to sit beside Harry and Ginny, they all exchanged weak smiles before they started a conversation of whispers.

"I can't sleep." Luna muttered pointedly.

"Same here." Harry replied stroking Ginny's hair.

"I don't think I can do this." Luna had become teary, Ginny placed a comforting arm around her.

"Yes you can, you're Luna Lovegood! Nothing can defeat you!" Ginny said to her supportably.

"I organised this whole thing like it was some sort of social gathering, I had eulogy prepared but it was just a bunch of words on parchment. It's only just sunk back in that this is daddy's funeral. They're both gone now, mum and dad, I know I should be happy that they're both back together again but I just want them back. It's so selfish." Luna sniffed, head in her hands. Harry stared at her blankly, he knew how she felt, Luna was now an orphan just like him.

"It's not selfish, it's just natural to feel like that. You partially feel let down that they're not here for you but really it's not selfish to want someone to be alive," Harry mumbled.

"How do you do it Harry?" Luna whimpered.

"Do what?"

"Carry on?"

"I don't know," she lifted her head to watch him speak, however the words got stuck inside his throat fighting to break out; "When you lose someone you feel like you've had your heart ripped out, you feel like you don't belong here anymore, that everything isn't right. You have to look past the negatives and look at the positives. We shouldn't pity the dead, Luna, because if we do we'll lose ourselves forever and things get worse. Instead we should pity the living because we're not the only ones who have lost someone" Harry realised something in his words, he was repeating them. Something similar had once echoed from Dumbledore at what felt a million years ago.

"Luna, your dad was a great man, truly brilliant. But we need to forget our grief, our mourning and stop being sad because there's plenty of other things to concentrate on. If we spent our time crying as much as we may need or want to over people who were once close to us then we'd all be dead ourselves. Don't cry, wipe up your tears, there's going to be another war sooner or later and we're all going to be in the middle of it. Just like last time and the time before that people have and will always die and it's the living's duty to protect one another from joining those dead. This morning we will say goodbye to Xenophilius Lovegood and I swear no-one else will die because of me. No-one." Harry finished with an almost silent sigh of relief as he settled back into sofa his arm wrapped tightly around Ginny who stared at him, mouth slightly agape. Harry sniffed, tears stung his eyes as he looked at Luna who gave him a weak smile, tear stained.

The funeral commenced at eleven o'clock up in the hills between the Lovegood and the Weasley household over-looking the village. The area was surrounded with hundreds of defensive shielding spells and even after they all left would be surrounded with various enchantments to protect the body. Luna and Neville greeted the relatives, friends and colleagues who came to say their goodbyes at the entrance of the set area. The guests took their seats on six split rows of spindly chairs facing the top of the hill where there was a platform for anyone speaking. In between this was a freshly dug hole with a large pile of earth beside it, just behind it stood on an erected table was the coffin of Xenophilius Lovegood. Once all were seated the little man who had conducted Dumbledore's funeral and Bill and Fleur's wedding now stood afore to carry out the service. The funeral consisted of various anecdotes by family members and friends as well as a few of Xenophilius' favourite songs were sung by the mass. Both Luna and Harry took their turn at speaking, Luna ended with a break-down of tears whereas Harry shakily just managed to produce a good few words about Luna's father. The service ended with all guests standing to see the body magically lowered into the earth to be quickly buried. A long table with food and refreshments was then magicked out of the air by Mrs Weasley and all took to eating and drinking on the soon conducted tables and chairs. Harry promptly moved to the edge of the area followed by Ron, Hermione and Ginny he didn't eat anything but felt rather sick as he watched Ron shovel through two plates of chicken, sandwiches and cake. Instead he stuck to drinking Ogden's Matured Mead straight out of the bottle, sat on the edge of his chair. Hermione noticed he was in some sort of deep thought I decided to sit next to him and find out what it was. Ron and Ginny listened into their conversation.

"Harry?" Hermione asked him.

"Yeah…" Harry slurred, he wasn't evidently a little drunk.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Australia." He muttered.

Ginny spluttered her Elf Wine and Ron choked on a cocktail sausage as Hermione gave Harry the most bemused of looks.

"Why?"

"Your parents," he said, "The Ministries aren't doing enough. I want to go to Australia again and find your parents because if someone hurts them I'm going to take responsibility because it just isn't fair anymore!"

"Then we're coming with you." Ron announced immediately, Hermione whipped her head around at him as Ginny nodded in agreement.

"Harry you're not talking sense! You're drunk!" Hermione told her friend sternly, he shook his head.

"So what if he is? He's not the only who's been thinking it? It's the best thing to do." Ron piped up.

"Fine! Fine! Let's do this!"

"I didn't say I wanted you to come, it might be dangerous!" Harry exclaimed.

"You've got no choice in the matter. We're going to Australia to save Hermione's mum and dad," Ginny confirmed as a chubby, middle-aged wizard gave them an awkward glance, "Piss off!" Ginny told him as the gentleman walked away.

Harry eyed the man suspiciously as he said; "I'll write another letter to Kingsley, he's sure to help us into the country, we should be out there by next week because nothing is going to stop us."

In the corner of a half-empty tavern in the deserted countryside of Prestatyn in Wales as evening approached, Onya Lewis sits alone at a circular table with a half-drunk pint of bitter in front of her. She had her hood up as the Muggles she opposed walked past her with looks of bemusement as she stroked her wand under the table. Then through the double-doors walked in an overweight middle-aged man, the same one who had stared and annoyed Ginny. As he neared Onya she sat up and gave him a piercing look which turned into shock as the man's face became to bubble. With no-one else looking he suddenly transformed into Draco Malfoy, his robes now too big for him drooped as he sat facing Onya.

"I don't remember organising a meeting Draco? Why the hell are you using Polyjuice Potion?" she hissed.

"You won't believe where I've been." Draco breathed heavily.

"Where?!" she demanded.

"Lovegood's funeral!"

"Why the hell have you been there? You could of gotten yourself killed you idiot!" she slapped him frustratingly on the arm.

"Your plan's worked though!"

Onya suddenly became calmer and more interested; "What?"

"Potter's going to Australia," Malfoy began excitedly, "He thinks we're going to harm the Grangers so he's planning to head off with his friends under Shacklebolt's supervision. With them gone security will be loosened, it'll be the key time to break into Hogwarts and find the Resurrection Stone and get the documents! We could bring back the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord before they return and reign war!"

Onya sat forward and seized Draco giving him a large kiss on the lips before settling with large grins on their faces.

"I don't believe this is happening, when are they going?" she asked breathlessly.

"Next week," Draco said excitedly, "then we can break out my mother and make McKinnon ours?!"

The trip to Australia took longer to organise than Harry had originally thought, a month went by until Kingsley and Percy had managed to organise everything. With an agent in the Ministry both Draco and Onya were aware of this and now had had time to devise their plan to break into Hogwarts. At the beginning of Advent Kingsley had officially left Percy in charge of the Ministry, some security measures had been lifted with Harry out of the country. Draco and Onya now had a highly detailed map of Hogwarts and knew the weakest parts to attack and how much time they would have to find the Stone. By the twentieth of December, a month and a half after the original notion to carry out their plans within the next week, both Draco and Onya and Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione were set to head off.

In the small hours of that cold winter's morning Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny awoke early their bags packed with a week's worth of clothing. They went down to the kitchen for an early breakfast before exiting to the garden and Disapparating just outside of the back gate. Soon enough they landed at Cranworth Ferry Port for the second time that year and just like the previous time they found themselves meeting both Radling and Cave at the end of frosted pier. At the hearing of their footsteps Cave turned on his heavy boots cracking the ice beneath his feet looking murderous whilst Radling shivered. The six exchanged blank looks covered tightly in layers of clothing.

"You're late." Cave grumbled adjusting his leather gloves.

"You never change." Harry snapped back, voice muffled through his scarf.

Radling took out a solitary slipper from the depths of his velvet robes and placed it on the cracked black ice upon the pier. They all shared a moment where they stared at the fluffy grey slipper before Cave removed his wand from his pocket and pointed at this slipper; "Portus!" It suddenly shone an eerie blue which reflected in the frost as they all placed a foot onto the slipper. Barely any words were exchanged as the spell soon took effect and they were sucked into the Portkey. After a minute or so of constant spinning and cold air, feeling sickly, they all landed flat on their faces in the sand. The blazing heat caught Harry by surprise as he collapsed onto his back and unravelled his scarf and two jumpers before he suffocated in the blast of high temperatures and a fierce humidity. Wiping sand off their faces and carrying their winter garments the six made their way to the stone wall which had the entrance to the Ministry Atrium. The rock split into two and revealed the dark cavern which they all entered and soon traipsed down the steps and through the door with the brass knocker into the Atrium.

The Atrium had now been fully restored with its Kangaroo and Koala statue standing tall and shiny in the centre of the area. The bloodstains and rubble had been cleaned up and most of the missing chunks in the walls had been replaced. The Atrium looked new and more or less a double of the British version now, at that point in time the Ministry was busy with hundreds of workers dashing about into the lifts and out with piles of parchment. In the midst of all of this out appeared the Australian Minister for Magic; Harrison Angus Grabbleforn wearing robes of green with an orange cloak which shocked Harry considering he'd only ever had seen the Minister in his Judicial robes of block. It appeared his casual wear was much more eccentric, his shoes were sparkly magenta with yellow laces. He had a wide smile on his face underneath that large nose, as he took hold of Harry's hand and shook it furiously.

"Good to see you again Mr Potter, I hope you are well?" Grabbleforn remarked.

"Would I be here if I was?" Harry muttered tiredly.

"Well things have changed Mr Potter which guessing by your tone you don't know about? We sent you a letter by owl last night." Grabbleforn said.

"Why what's happened?!" Ginny jumped in.

"We've decided to take action," Grabbleforn started, "We decided to bring in Mr and Mrs Granger so we can protect them within the Ministry, it was too much of a risk to allow them to live out there alone."

Hermione dropped her extra clothing, her mouth opened wide and tears filled her eyes as Ron rounded on Grabbleforn; "They're here?! Alive?!"

"Very much so, we put them under a strong Sleeping Draught for now but they're in my office at the mo…"

Hermione rocketed off towards Grabbleforn's office on the other side of the Atrium, the other three followed suit as Radling and Cave nodded towards their Minister and headed off in a different direction. Eventually Ginny, Harry, Ron and Grabbleforn met Hermione in the entrance of the Minister's office. In the large office there were two leather sofas in the corner of the room near the polished desk. On those sofas lay Hermione's parents unconscious, Hermione rushed over to them and burst into a fit of tears as she leant down next to them and touched them. The parents she hadn't seen for eighteen months lay unconscious unbeknownst to them that their daughter was kneeled beside them hugging and crying over them. Ron bent down beside her to comfort her. Grabbleforn spoke up; "I heard you're the brightest witch of your age, Miss Granger?"

Hermione replied with a whimper as she cried more in happiness.

"I assume you can lift your parents' memory charm?"

"Y-y-y-yes..." she replied.

"Then I allow you on all accounts to do so."

Hermione took out her wand and urged Ron to stand back as she directed her wand in her parent's general direction a mist ejected itself from her wand and hovered over their heads. Then suddenly Mr and Mrs Granger woke up and spotted their daughter and in a chorus cried; "HERMIONE!" The family then exchanged hugs and kisses all around as the others in the room shared smiles.

Eventually the laughter, the crying, the hugging and the kissing settled and Mr Granger repositioned himself by sitting on the other side of the sofa his wife sat on, Hermione snuggled in between them. Ron and Ginny took seats near to the back of the office, Harry continued to stand with Grabbleforn at the door frame.

"Hermione, what on earth happened? Where are we? What is Ronald, Ginerva and Harry doing here? And who is that man?" Mr Granger quizzed his daughter almost immediately.

"Has something happened in your world darling? What is it? I feel like I've been out of it for days!" Mrs Granger exclaimed giving Hermione a tight hug. Hermione then launched into a full explanation of what had happened including the mind-wipe and the war, whilst this happened Grabbleforn tapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Can I have a word Mr Potter?" the Minister whispered in Harry's ear.

"Yeah…"

The pair exited the office and shut the wooden door with a clasp; "We can't afford to keep the Grangers here."

"Excuse me?" Harry spluttered at the Minister's words.

"Obviously the Death Eaters are after them as an act of vengeance against you and this country's security is so much more lax to yours and we haven't had time to build it up…"

"YOU HAVE HAD SIX WEEKS!" Harry's voice reverberated around the Atrium.

"That's still not enough time," Grabbleforn explained, "We only just managed to safely operate saving those people! But the thing is it has never been discussed what we are doing with the Grangers now. Shacklebolt never explained what he wanted or what you wanted."

"Hermione wants her parents back of course, where they belong!" Harry retorted.

"Maybe where they belong isn't where they should be. Britain is infested in every corner with the filth of the magical community. We cannot risk innocent Muggle lives there now."

"But the Death Eaters know Hermione's parents are here, they must know and with your security down like you said you don't stand a chance!" Harry felt his heart beating like a bass drum against his ribs, it hurt, he couldn't stand Hermione being put through the pain of seeing her parents be murdered in cold blood.

"Security of this Ministry is being built up as we speak, we have a place for them to stay. Your friend Miss Granger can stay with them." Grabbleforn didn't look Harry in the eye, his decision appeared final.

"I've got no choice in this have I?"

"Shacklebolt agrees with me on this, so no." Harry gave the Australian Minister a look of disgust as he walked back into the office, all glanced at with puzzled expressions.

Evidently Hermione had completed explaining things to her parents who were now enquiring about her relationship with Ron which found him looking pink-eared and bashful whereas Ginny was giggling, a hand in her mouth. When Harry walked in though everything became silent.

"I'm sorry Mr and Mrs Granger," Harry began, "but you can't leave the country. It's in both the British and the Australian Ministries interest that for your safety it would be best to reside here in this building."

Ron's face contorted with severe confusion, Ginny raised her eyebrows in shock whereas Mr and Mrs Granger looked down, accepting it. Hermione stood up to face Harry and Grabbleforn.

"You're kidding right?" she said.

"Kingsley and Grabbleforn have agreed it's for the best," Harry began, "There's a place for them to stay within the Ministry for as long as things continue. You can stay with them."  
" I don't understand," Hermione shook her head as Harry had spoken, she now sounded distraught; "But they know they're here and security is awful, the Death Eaters will kill them!"

Harry couldn't produce the words; "The De…"

"No, Harry! This isn't right! They should be at home where they are safe!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Hermione, darling, I think you should listen to what Harry has to say." Mrs Granger intervened, Hermione gave her mother a look of surprise.

"I agree with your mother." Mr Granger stated, nodding to Harry for him to continue;

"The Death Eaters will know our every move, they'll expect us to bring back your parents in order to protect them worrying they're in danger. Keeping them here whilst the Death Eaters look for them in Britain allows Australia to build up its security ready for anything. This is the best thing to do. Trust me." Harry finished with a gasp.

"I guess there's no way around this is there?" Hermione had now relaxed, accepting what was happening, "Okay, I'm staying, no matter what…"

"Then so am I." Ron interrupted. Everyone looked at him.

"Ron, you could be here for weeks, months even years just waiting for this to blow over?" Harry pointed out, Ron shrugged at his comment.

"It's Hermione…" his face read like a book, Harry knew he would never leave Hermione, he had made that promise to her after his last departure when on the search for Horcruxes, "I won't leave her."

"I'll leave you alone for now," Grabbleforn gestured to exiting the room taking out his wand he made trays of food and drink appear on his desk, "I'll return later today, Harry, Ginny, Cave and Radling will take you back to Cranworth Ferry Port later on. We all need to do some serious work beforehand." He promptly left the room.

Harry took to collapsing on a nearby spindly chair, near to Ginny and stared at where Grabbleforn once stood as Mr Granger asked them all; "So what's going on?"


	23. The School Break-In

In the depths of a forest on the outskirts of Dunfermline was the temporal operatory base for the Death Eaters lead by Jeremiah McKinnon and Yaxley. Once Yaxley had Apparated at McKinnon's last base he modified his memory to believe their base was attacked, wands stolen, and lead him to believe Draco had no part in the Execution breakout and that they had all been exonerated by Onya Lewis but left her alone to find him. After all was cleared the Death Eaters relocated numerous times until they settled in the Irish forest. Hundreds of defensive charms were placed around the area where they decided live in tents that were bigger on the inside. On that frosty morning McKinnon sat behind a table at the back of his grand tent in the middle of the others. He was joined by Yaxley as the pair discussed what McKinnon had discovered about the Deathly Hallows, they had been planning and planning for months on what action was best to take and were still getting no further, seeing no possible way into the school. Draco had overheard most of their many discussions and had laughed inside his head at the thought he would find the Resurrection Stone first. That morning was no different however it was the morning he planned to raid Hogwarts Castle with Onya. He had already packed a bag with everything that was essential; two flasks of Polyjuice potion, two black cloaks and a dagger as well as his father's old wand which McKinnon had taken ownership of; hidden in a secret compartment. With no-one nearby or wandering about he decided to Disapparate at the edge of the camp just after six in the morning. However, this meant passing the Head Tent where through a thin gap in the canvas McKinnon and Yaxley spotted him.

"Draco?" McKinnon's voice stabbed Draco, he faltered in his walk and came to a halt outside the tent.

"Yeah?"

"Come in here." Yaxley ordered him, Draco soon enough made his way into tent, the two gestured to him to take a seat in front of them at the circular table at the back of the tent.

"Where were you going Draco? It's six in the morning! Give me your bag." McKinnon gave Draco a deadly stare which made the teen take the bag off of his back and put it onto the table, Yaxley grabbed it and opened it up.

"Polyjuice Potion, dagger, cloaks?"

"Where were you planning to go Draco?" McKinnon asked again.

"Erm…" Draco thought on the spot, "Visiting my father."

"Your father's dead?" Yaxley chuckled.

McKinnon cut across him; "He means the grave you idiot. Are you sure you'd be able to get away with it? Not be caught, Draco?"

"Y-yes." Draco stammered.

"Fine, go, I can't stop you, you best go," McKinnon waved him off, "Don't be all day. You best be back by lunch."

"Of course," Draco lied. He was due to never return here, he could never risk within being in vicinity with these people ever again after today. He was betraying them all, siding with the enemy but he was glad of it.

Draco then stood up from the table and took his bag back off the two in front of him, as he put it back on his back they stared at him, he tried to avoid their gaze as he exited the tent not looking back. He checked for his wand, it was still in the back pocket of his robes as he took one last look at the camp before he span on his heel and Disapparated into the frosty winter's morning.

After he felt himself be squeezed through a rubber tube, Draco was able to regain breath when he landed feet first on a crunchy snow filled field. He opened his eyes to see Onya nearby leaning against a tree trunk, he ran over to her.

"You got the potion?" she asked him a little jittery.

"Yes, should we head off?" Draco though feeling sickly felt excited, he wanted to go and get it done.

"Okay, yes…" Onya grabbed his hand and the pair of them turned on their heels, Draco felt the side-effects of Disapparition again as they landed side by side in Hogsmeade Village, the fire damage caused by Narcissa Malfoy still resided there, shop fronts were covered up with planks of wood and the streets were merely filled with some shoppers. Some blood-stains and piles of ash resided here and there on a the cobbled streets. Onya gave Draco a nervous look when they landed, he gave her an awkward smile back.

"My mother did this?" Draco gasped in awe at the sight of the damage.

"I guess so."

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"Of course." She snapped back, regaining some confidence.

"You seem a little edgy?"

"Well we are risking our lives, both the Death Eaters and the Ministry will be onto us!"

Draco gave her a tight hug of reassurance and took her hand but she shook it off.

"Let's take the potion, yeah?" Onya enquired untying Draco's bag off his shoulders and taking out the Polyjuice Potion, "So how did you get the hairs? Whose are they?"

"No idea, some Muggles." Draco shrugged.

"Did you kill them?"

Draco gave her a bewildered look; "No, why?"

"You should of," She uncorked one of the bottles, "This one mine?"

"Yeah…"

She swallowed down the whole bottle in one go as Draco spluttered on drinking his own, eventually their skin bubbled and altered, soon enough Onya was a thirty-odd year-old dark haired pretty woman whereas Draco was an elderly gentleman with a greenish tinge to his greying hair accompanied with large ears.

"So I am Yvette Surlianettev? And you are?" Onya quizzed Draco.

"Harold Murdington?"

"Good, and we've been sent down to inspect the refurbishment of the castle by Weasley, yes?"

"Correct. And if we get caught out?" Draco's question hung in the air for a moment.

"Kill them."

"No!" Draco cut across her; "We knock them out. Wipe their memories."

"Whatever, let's just get this over with."

Draco and Onya unsheathed their wands and placed them underneath their sleeves as they began to walk towards the entrance to Hogwarts; Draco stuck his dagger into his inside pocket and the pair put their cloaks over themselves. It took them a five minute brisk walk to get near to the large gates which were guarded by two burly wizard guards and probably hundreds of various incantations replaced after the Battle. Draco gulped at the sight of the castle, he saw the remains of his schooldays overshadow the village before it, memories of bloodshed and death danced around his mind. He tried to see past the piles of rubble and ash-stained walls to see the guards that gave Draco and Onya bemused looks as they approached them, the first guard took a step forward.

"Business?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"We've been sent by Minister Weasley to inspect how the refurbishment of the school is coming along." Onya stated blankly, staring directly at the guard.

"We haven't heard anything about any inspection, have you got any identification?" the second guard demanded.

Onya unsheathed her wand in a flash, the guards copied her but Draco was too fast; "EXPELLIARMUS!" the two wizards were disarmed, Draco and Onya directed their wands to the guards' heads.

"Open the gates and no-one gets hurt." Draco spoke calmly, a murderous tone to his voice.

The two wizards obeyed, taking back up their wands and opening up the gates with magic but as soon as Onya and Draco stepped through into the threshold of Hogwarts the guards immediately went to strike them with their wands. However, Onya screamed; "AVADA KEDAVRA!" killing the second guard dead as the first jumped over his body and went to fire a stunning spell at Draco who avoided it but his wand went skidding up the path. So he took out his dagger and pummelled it into the guard's chest allowing a gush of crimson to leak into the cracks in the path. Draco and Onya sighed with relief as they turned to continue to walk up the path however the stabbed guard was still conscious. He seized his wand and fired red sparks high up into the air, Onya and Draco took one look at one another.

"We don't stand a chance now! They know there are intruders now!" Draco exclaimed as Onya fired a killing curse at the semi-conscious guard so that he dropped down dead.

"This is our only chance! We've got to do this today! Whoever stands in our way we will kill them, we cannot fail!" Onya encouraged him, she then sped off into the distance, Draco followed suit as they both cut around the front of the castle that had been mostly repaired. The front of the building still saw missing windows, shards of glass and piles of rubble nearby but it appeared to be clearing up. Avoiding large cracks in the ground and swerving round a blood-stained, burnt patch of grass the two stopped dead. They were in the courtyard, the damage still evident around from the battle but there were about fifty wizards there clearing up the devastation and rebuilding parts of the castle. They had started to stop with the red sparks still in the sky and they faced both Onya and Draco as someone yelled in the distance; "MURDERERS!"

Another soon screamed; "GET THEM!"

Suddenly scenes of May's battle were recreated as a shower of multi-coloured spells arched towards them as they began to run again towards the Forbidden Forest. Many of the wizards started to follow them so Draco and Onya retaliated by firing killing curses over their shoulders, the wizards began to drop like flies as they neared the entrance clearing. From what they could see some of the trees leading into the forest were in pieces on the ground, some burnt, in the distance lay the remnants of Hagrid's hut, his garden demolished. The number of wizards decreased as Onya and Draco began to enter the dark realms of the old forest. Draco distinctly remembered his first trip within the trees with Hagrid, he had never been so scared, until that moment.

Some of the wizards caught up with the pair as Onya sent a gigantic wave of energy behind her throwing the majority of the volunteers flying backwards onto the grass. The remaining few that hadn't been hit persevered and their use of spells became more dangerous; soon enough the running slowed down. In the midst of hundreds of trees near the opening to the forest Draco and Onya ducked down behind a tree trunk. At least ten wizard and witch helpers remained firing spells near to the two who continued to fight back. The whole event had felt like minutes to Draco when in actual fact it hadn't, with his potion making skills not being so efficient the Polyjuice Potion suddenly reversed. The next time the pair stood to defend themselves their true identities were seen by all and the rage of their friends being murdered and this reveal the sheer force of attack from the wizards increased tenfold. Soon enough _'sectumsempra' _ along with many other dangerous hexes were being delivered. Draco and Onya took to hiding once more as Onya turned to speak to him; "Do you know where the Dark Lord and the others stayed during the Battle?!"

Draco nodded firing a successful _'crucio' _curse at one of the witches causing her to shake violently on the forest floor as Onya spoke once more; "I can fend them off, you go there and try to find the Stone!"

"NO! I can't leave you here!" Draco exclaimed furiously avoiding a stunning spell.

Onya managed to kill two of the wizards with one shot, only eight volunteers remained fighting, "I CAN MANAGE BUT YOU MUST GO! NOW! HURRY!"

Draco bit his newly split lip, tear-stained and aching all over he jumped up from their hiding place and managed to navigate his way on the ground through a set of brambles out of sight from the attacking volunteers. He then got to his feet and began to run as fast his legs could carry him, tired, weak and badly bruised he ignored the world as he jumped over broken branches and logs and caught his face on passing hanging thorns. However, as he launched himself off of a cut down tree trunk he was flung side wards by another flying life form. When he crashed into a pile of mud he looked up to see an army of angry centaurs surrounding him.

There were at least twenty of them, livid expressions painted on their faces along with various scars from months gone by. Draco shared moments of tense staring with them all, no speech, all that could be heard was the distant din of spells and some hooves been dragged through the earth. Draco then jumped up and accelerated over a fallen down tree promptly followed by the herd of centaurs whose hooves clattered loudly against the cold, solid surface of the forest floor. They galloped fast and angrily after Draco who began to fire numerous hexes over his shoulder avoiding one or two centaurs who jumped over his head but snapped their legs on landing. After minutes of constant chasing through the forest Draco had successfully murdered eleven of the centaurs, six had caused themselves injury and the remaining three were still on his tail. Then, he saw it, in the close distance; the clearing. He knew the Stone would have been dropped or lost somewhere nearby to the clearing not actually in it so he had to act fast. He span on the spot, as he fell to the ground he expelled a large shield charm which send the centaurs flying backwards. Draco then scrambled around in the dirt, slipping on frosty pieces of grass and slapping his face into puddles of muddy water he spotted something nearby.

Buried firmly underneath a tuft of grass resided a black stone the size of small pebble with a jagged crack down the middle; _the Resurrection Stone! _Thing was, the grass it found itself trapped within was now glazed over with a thick layer of black ice. Knowing the Stone lay ahead of him Draco lost sense of his surroundings and the fact his wand now resided loosely in his right hand, he dropped it and launched forwards. He then started to punch the ice with his bare hands, already cut he broke his left index finger as he pummelled away, he managed to find a weak spot which cracked. Draco couldn't feel his hands anymore, instead his desire for the Stone drove him to dig out large chunks of ice and throw it aside before delving his hand into the icy water…he could feel the grass now…his fingers scrabbled around trying to find the Stone…then he felt it. Instantly he gouged it from the mud and brought it up, he fondled it for a moment however he could hear the centaurs behind stirring. He stashed the Resurrection Stone within his robes and took out his dagger as the first centaur soared towards him. He flung the blade into the creature's neck so that it staggered to the ground bleeding profusely. As the other two centaurs arose a sudden thought occurred to Draco as he grabbed his wand and so he hollered; "ACCIO BROOM!"

Then, through the thicket of branches appeared a partially burnt school broomstick which rocketed in his direction. He clambered upon it and abruptly steered away from the nearing centaurs into the trees and then above them. Draco then manoeuvred his way across the Forest sky towards a mass of blinding coloured light where he realised Onya must be. He then sunk low into the trees near to where they had been hiding, Onya appeared to of killed three more of the wizards when she spotted Draco hovering nearby.

"DRACO! Have you..?!" she ducked a stinging jinx, "HAVE YOU GOT THE STONE?!"

He nodded curtly as he patted his robes where it resided, he flew over to her and she jumped aboard the broom as they soared back up into air. The volunteers screamed in anguish as their opponents escaped into the sky, as Draco directed the broom towards the courtyard they saw a multitude of Ministry wizards start to Apparate amongst the many dead. They fired their own hexes into the air which Draco cleverly avoided as he surpassed the entrance to the school and had finally escaped the boundaries. From a distance the two wizard guards they had murdered at the beginning lay in pools of blood were just visible. Draco gulped as he checked for the Stone once more and accelerated faster across the village landscape and into the hills.

After an hour or so of flying Draco finally landed the broomstick midway up a dilapidated hill miles and miles away from the school and the village. They aborted the broom and left it to hover low near the surface as they collapsed onto a grassy mound with heavy breaths. They now both had multiple cuts and bruises all over their faces, their robes were slashed in various places with various blood and mud stains dotted everywhere. Draco had a particular deep gash on the left side of his face along with his split lip and broken finger as well as splinters from the trees. Onya had scratches down her face with a sprained ankle and chunk of skin missing from her arm.

"What the hell went wrong with the potion?!" she cried with an exhausted sigh.

"I must of brewed it incorrectly! It should of lasted for at least two hours…" Draco snapped back.

"They know who we are now! And considering it's us the Ministry are going to be working ten times as hard to track us down."

"You're giving up?"

Onya gave him a look of disgust; "NO! We're going now to find the documents on how to exploit the Hallows, yes?"

"Course." Draco swiped streaks of blood off of his forehead and dusted himself off of wood splinters and stood back up, his wand still firmly clenched in his hand. Onya followed suit as they both avoided eye contact as they continued to speak, instead surveying their surroundings.

"So, where are the documents again?" Onya muttered.

"The Witches' Dip, it's in the middle of a forest near a Muggle infested area in Derby." Draco said nursing his deep cut on his cheek.

"Remember that, we'll Disapparate." Onya ordered.

"What about the broom?"

"They'll be looking for it."

"Won't they be able to monitor us anyway?"

"No," she finally faced him, he eyed the ground, "Got the Stone?"

He removed it from his inside pocket and held it out in his palm, Onya stroked it and gazed glassy eyed at their achievement as she ordered; "Keep it safe. Now let's go." She seized his arm as they turned on their heels to be sucked into the atmosphere.

Moments later they landed in familiar surroundings; another forest, however this time the trees were not as tightly together and they already found themselves in a clearing which only had some ice around it. Draco realised behind him was the bowl-like area that McKinnon had described to him and in the middle was a large tree which appeared different to the others around it. The trees nearby where covered in thick, green moss, and were slightly smaller than the one in the centre of the dip which was sleek and smooth with only a few knots. Draco undid his bag and removed McKinnon's wand from the secret compartment, he then took Onya's hand as they made their way down the embankment, avoiding a mud puddle. They were then stood underneath the shadow of the large tree as Draco directed the wand at it and spoke softly; "Accio documents."

Onya gave him a weak smile as a circular section of the tree suddenly disintegrated revealing a hollow inside, pinned against the back inside of the tree trunk with a nail were several sheets of heavily detailed parchment. Draco stashed away the wand as he went forward and tore out the nail and took hold of the documents in his hands. There they lay; illustrations, sketches and lots of notes by various different authors which didn't make too much sense. Together Onya and Draco shuffled through the parchment until they found a particular piece which made everything clear to them. It wasn't entitled but read the following;

_'Ownership of the three Deathly Hallows allows any witch or wizard to become officially the Master/Mistress of Death. The Invisibility Cloak allows the ability to hide for years on end from anybody including Death itself. The Elder Wand is considered to be the most powerful to of ever existed in wizarding history. And the Resurrection Stone when turned thrice can bring back Shades of most loved ones. However, the Stone does have the ability to bring back anyone desired from the dead to the living for one more time by someone who does not own it. If the blood of the Master/Mistress is used in co-ordination with the Elder Wand with the particular incantation can fully resurrect the recently deceased no matter of soul damage or circumstances of death. The Resurrection can only occur if the user has used its own ingenuity to discover said stone, gain access to the blood and forcibly use the wand against the owner's permission. Also, if the user's desires for resurrection are reasonable…'_

"Are we doing this?" Draco gave Onya a prolonged stare of bemusement as he paused reading aloud the page.

"The time isn't right, I don't think we're ready," Onya admitted shamefully, "Is the incantation there?"

"Yes," Draco continued to read; "_'The Stone should be turned thrice with the Elder Wand in the other hand before situating it in open space before speaking the following incantation; With the blood of the Master of Death drawn in revenge, his Hallows forcibly taken I speak to thee as the conqueror of the owner of the invincible items. As I have turned the Stone of Resurrection and casted with the Wand of Elder I request the return to life of my beloved; enter name here, to continue their existence from whence they left it until the day they die once more and for eternity'"_

Onya raised her eyebrows like she had spotted something; "Turn the page over!"

Draco obeyed, there was a little segment of text there continued from the original passage which he read; "_In order to assume an eternity of ultimate power to reign them all, as an act of…you must…_"

The ink had become smudged in these intervals, they were unable to read what had been written. Draco and Onya had the ability to gain ultimate power but had no idea how to gain this power because of the writer's mistake. There was some more text after this but this was also smudged and completely unreadable. Draco decided to tuck the documents inside his robe pockets next to the Resurrection Stone.

"The knowledge to gain ultimate power over all Magical and Muggle kind is in our hands and we can't bloody read it!" Onya began a violent tantrum as she swore crudely kicking brushes and trees in her way as she trudged back up to the clearing, Draco followed suit silent.

"We need to get that wand!" Onya screeched as she collapsed into a sobbing heap.

"Don't worry we will!" Draco suddenly realised something so he began to ramble; "I KNOW WHERE IT IS! The wand! We all saw it for ourselves! The exchange of a wand, the Elder Wand, in the final showdown! As me and my parents escaped there was mention of Potter doing something with a wand and to do with Dumbledore. He must of buried it with him thinking no one would know what it was or would never find it!"

"And how do we get into Hogwarts again?!"

"I don't know, it'll be a while yet, once there's some sort of gathering there we've got to smuggle ourselves in! Which means no killing!" Draco shouted at Onya she backed up a little, slightly scared.

"Fine, yes, okay! Let's do that! I can wait! We must wait!" he helped her back onto her feet and they had an intimate hug.

"We're going to do this!" Draco whispered in her ear.

"But what do we do now?" she sighed, a single tear in her heartless eyes.

Hours had passed since Hermione had been finally reunited with her parents in Minister Grabbleforn's office. The trays that had been provided for them kept refilling and so no-one had gone hungry or thirsty in the duration of the lengthy catch up between family. By mid-evening Mr and Mrs Granger had been able to reminisce about their time in Australia, how they remembered having a desire to move there yet not to make a family. However, truths from their locked memories slipped through as in the couple both took up jobs as dentists again. Hermione then took over and explained everything that had been going on in the Wizarding World whilst they'd been away which left the pair stunned and in shock. Eventually the topic morphed into relationships and all four of the teenagers were quizzed about what was going on. However, things were cut short when Grabbleforn abruptly burst into the office soon followed by none other than Percy Weasley who donned black robes, they all turned to him as he entered with shocked expressions. Before a word was put in edgeways Kinglsey then ran in, his earring dangled as he breathed heavily like he had just ran.

"Percy?! Kingsley?! What's wrong?!" Harry exclaimed.

"I don't know, they said Percy was here and that is was urgent!" Kingsley seemed to be unaware of what was going on too.

"Wait…Kinglsey have you been here while we have?" Ron quizzed him.

"I was going to come down and check on you all but I've been in negotiations all day with the Minister today about security." Kingsley curtly replied.

Percy cut to the chase; "Draco Malfoy and Onya Lewis broke into Hogwarts earlier today," he began, "they disguised themselves with Polyjuice Potion but it wore off after they killed the guards to get in. They were spotted by all of the volunteers helping to rebuild the school and were chased into the Forbidden Forest. Five injured, forty three dead. Not including two injured centaurs and eighteen others dead. All in all that's a total of sixty one."

The room was deadly silent. Mr and Mrs Granger gave one another confused, slightly scared looks, Ron and Hermione held each other's hands tightly as they shared a gaze, Harry held Ginny, he looked like he was going to be sick.

"Teenagers…?" Grabbleforn plucked a bottle of whisky from a nearby bookshelf and drank the bottle whole as he went to sit behind his desk where he took out another larger bottle and uncorked it.

"Why were they there do you know?" Harry asked Percy.

"No idea, nothing was stolen or damaged. The Aurors spotted them escaping by broom, they were too late to do anything." Percy was incredibly solemn, he stared at his shoes.

"And what's happening then?" Ron sounded hoarse as he spoke.

"There's going to be a mass funeral for all the dead in the Grounds sometime soon. The Ministry's going mad, the whole Wizarding side of Britain is crying out in outrage. We don't know what to do now."

"Sixty one? Only fifty-odd died in the Battle of Hogwarts…how could the two of them kill so many innocent people? What did they want?! What was the point of it?!" Harry shot up from his seat and kicked it over, shoving aside a pile of parchment.

"Harry we're doing anything and everything we can." Percy stated.

Harry lost it, the next words he spoke saw every word come from the heart, he became violent as he screamed; "THAT'S OBVIOUSLY NOT ENOUGH! IF YOU HAD OF IMPROVED YOUR GAME MONTHS AGO NONE OF THIS WOULD OF HAPPENED! SIXTY-ONE INNOCENT LIVES WOULDN'T OF BEEN TAKEN! IF YOU HAD ONLY STEPPED UP YOUR SECURITY OR ACTUALLY DID YOUR JOB PROPERLY NOTHING WOULD BE AS MUCH AS A DISASTER AS IT IS!" Harry suddenly punched a hole into a cupboard nearby before snapping a chair with a swift kick, he began to throw around and destroy more and more things in the room. Ginny became tearful as Harry broke down.

"Harry, if we didn't have to babysit you all the time then we wouldn't have this problem!" Harry gave Percy a wild look, "Or even better; imagine you never got that scar and died liked you should have then Fred would of never been killed!" Percy had also now lost control; "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST DIE LIKE YOUR PARENTS!"

Harry punched him! Percy was knocked to floor with one clean swing to the horror of the others in the room, without a second glance Harry stormed out of the office and smacked the door loudly behind him.

He didn't know his way around this Ministry building but he managed to find a store cupboard on the other side of the Atrium where he sat on one of two chairs in the dark bawling, nursing his fists, the last few minute's anger still swelling in his head. His sobs echoed around him as the door to the storeroom creaked open gingerly, Ginny entered the storeroom and locked it with her wand behind her. She walked to Harry slowly as he sobbed into his hands, she placed a gentle arm around his back as she pulled across the other chair and sat beside him. She stroked his hair as his sobbing began to gradually decrease, she urged him to lift up his tear stained face to look at her. She wiped some tears off of his face as she spoke; "I've never seen you like that…"

"I-I-I d-d-don't know wha-what's happening to m-m-me…?" Harry stuttered, "It's not fair! IT'S NOT FAIR!" he punched his legs in frustration as Ginny patted him soothingly.

"I know…I understand…" she sighed.

"I thought it was all over but it isn't is it?! People are still dying and what for?! WHAT FOR?!" Harry looked deeply at Ginny as he continued, "W-when I was younger I believed in magic before I knew it was real! And I thought someone magical would take me away from the Dursleys and I'd be so much better off! But sometimes, most of the time, I wish Hagrid had never knocked down that door on my eleventh birthday! Or even better, I had died with my parents then none of this would be happening! Percy was right! I should of died there and there and one of this would be happening!"

"But if you died then no-one would have been able to stop Voldemort!" Ginny exclaimed, Harry gave her a surprised look; he had never heard her say the name before. She was shaking slightly

"I don't know what to do anymore!" he decided to look around the storeroom in a tear-fuelled anguish, in there were stacks of parchment, a knife-like letter opener and numerous unnameable magical objects.

"Don't think like that."

"It's me?! IT'S ALWAYS ME! I'M THE CAUSE OF IT ALL! PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF ME! I'M BETTER OFF DEAD BECAUSE THE REASON ALL THIS IS HAPPENING IS BECAUSE I'M ALIVE!" the letter opener glinted from the light that found its way through a crack in the door, the only bit of illumination in the dimly lit room. As Harry released himself from Ginny's hold he tripped and crashed into the shelf which held the letter opener. Upon trying to defend himself from the falling blade, Harry's wrists were snagged. Instantly blood spat onto the floor as the letter opener clattered to the ground. Ginny began to scream but her cries were distant to Harry who began to lose consciousness only to hear his heart pounding against every bone in his body as more and more blood exited his body onto the stone floor of the storeroom. Things began to become unfocused and blurry as Harry saw Ginny take our her wand and try to clear up the blood. His nerves must have been affected by the blood loss and the cutting of the wrists as he didn't feel any of the healing spells hit him and failed to operate efficiently. Ginny broke down into a sobbing wreck over Harry's limb body as one by one the others entered the storeroom and he lost consciousness and the world went to black…

When Christmas Eve arrived the entire wizarding population had knowledge of the events that had occurred at Hogwarts and as expected the governments received mass outage and disgust as things started to crumble. There was talk that Kingsley and Percy were incapable of managing the Ministry of Magic and that someone else should take over from them as soon as possible. In that time the Ministry had just managed to increase security of both the Wizarding and Muggle side of the country so that nearly every street corner was monitored by a member of the Ministry. Twenty four hours per day the entire Auror office were searching for any of the Death Eaters but their attempts had been fruitless to say the least. No traces of them were found whatsoever, it was like they had all vanished off of the face of the earth.

At the Burrow Harry lay unconscious in his bed in Ron's room, Ginny sat beside him stroking his head. With the help of Grabbleforn, Kingsley and Percy they managed to steam the blood flow from Harry's wrists and seal up where they had been slit. However, from the amount of blood lost he had been unconscious ever since and had to be placed on a stretcher when Disapparated to St Mungo's to be checked over. His wounds were immediately wrapped in numerous bandages after being treated with Essence of Murtlap and Ginny, Kinsley and Percy who had taken him there, were told he was well enough be cared at home. He had now lay unconscious for four days and it wasn't until Christmas Eve morning when he drearily awoke to the glaze of the open window. He blinked in the winter sunlight as he spotted Ginny, neither of them smiled at one another. Harry sat up, noticing the thick layer of bandages around his wrists as he did so.

"You've been unconscious for four days; it's Christmas Eve," Ginny did not sound enthused at the sight of Harry, she sounded rather cold in tone of voice, "Are you going to explain yourself or do I have to make you?"

Harry was confused as he was waking up in his own bed, the house silent; "I don't understand." His voice was cracked and hoarse.

"I understand you, Harry, completely, of course I do. I know you believe it's your fault for nearly anything bad that happens to anyone, even if you've never met them. You take responsibility when the responsibility isn't yours to take," Ginny wasn't softening, she continued to talk, not allowing Harry to put in a word, "However, what I don't understand is why you did what you did? You've never wanted to die; that was the cause of seven years' worth of grief. You would only die or risk doing so if it was completely and utterly necessary but the other day wasn't that whatsoever."

"I-I-I…" Harry tried to produce words but they got stuck in his throat and died.

"You even came back from the dead! So why, why did you try to take your own life?!" Ginny appeared to of kept this unexpected rage hidden inside until Harry had awoken; "You defeated the darkest, most dangerous wizard of all time but you can't face up to some of his followers? You are hero, Harry! Everybody is relying on you, believing that you can lead us into light and out of the darkness! How can we stop McKinnon and Malfoy if you can't take it and if you die! Percy was wrong, why did you let him get to you! If you had died Voldemort would of become more powerful and more would of died; you are the only one who could of possibly stopped him and you did! You can't betray the rest of us now!"

Harry's insides twisted horribly, his heart banged away at his ribcage, tears stung the back of his eyes as Ginny continued however as she did she also became teary; "You were willing to leave me, Harry. You promised you would never do that again, ever. You said you loved me, but do you really? Because you were ready to leave without even considering me one bit! Never mind your best friends! What about them, huh? Didn't you think about them!"

"Ginny…"

"Harry you're the bravest man I will ever know and I love every single cell in your body…so for me; never give up this fight. You can do this, do it for me!"

By this time they had both entered a fit of tears which saw Harry nodded shakily, Ginny rushed forwards and they embraced tightly.  
"I'm sorry…" she apologised, "I shouldn't of done that."

"No…I'm sorry." Harry told her firmly as they separated and began to clear up their tear stained faces, Ginny now snuggled beside him on the bed as they calmed and settled into silence.

"What happened? I blacked out straight away…" Harry asked Ginny softly.

"Me, Kingsley, Percy and Grabbleforn took you straight to St Mungo's, they cleaned you up and said you were fit to be looked after here." She explained.

"Where are Ron and Hermione?" Harry croaked, Ginny gave him an empathetic look.

"They've stayed in Australia with Hermione's mum and dad, we've got no idea when they're coming back if they are. They sent us a letter the other day anyway to tell us what's going on. They said the Ministry's found them some accommodation somewhere in the country guarded by lots of Aurors; they're spending Christmas there, they say their happy but missing us all, especially you."

Harry slumped against the headrest as he contemplated what it was going to be like without Ron and Hermione; it was their first Christmas without one another in seven years. Harry knew immediately he'd be lonely and things just wouldn't be the same at all. Harry wouldn't be able to laugh at Ron's annual Christmas jumper (the usual favourite colour of maroon), he also wouldn't be able to play Exploding Snaps after Christmas Dinner or watch Hermione fall over after too much Butterbeer. At least he had Ginny to spend his time with though he missed his best friends immensely already once Ginny had announced the news. He tried to forget about instead and decided to quiz Ginny on recent events. She left him speechless and after explaining the chaos around the Ministry and the Wizarding World that had ensued. Wizarding borders were closed down and covered with mass defensive enchantments, wizard guards took post at all the major wizarding villages, Hogwarts and Hogsmeade saw every wall covered too with security. The Aurors barely ever returned to their offices as they scoured the country for any sign of any of the Death Eaters, various other countries were also warned including Australia and they began to take similar measures. Kingsley and Percy had even made a breakthrough into the Muggle World in a meeting with some of the world's leaders including the British Prime Minister and American President which saw their governments lie to the Muggle population. Instantly precautions such as the closing down of airlines and so forth were undertaken as the public were stumped by rumours of disease, political warfare that was handed out as propaganda news.

"Percy listened to me then?" Harry managed to garble.

"Of course he did! Who wouldn't after pulling a stunt like that?" Ginny shook her head.

"How is he?"

"What? After you punched him?"

Harry burst out laughing against his own will; "Yeah…!"

Ginny started to giggle too, "You left quite a bruise on his face. He's been trying to get rid of it ever since, you've ruined his public image literally."

"What's happening today then?" Harry asked her, the icy mood had now melted, they felt comfortable in one another's company now.

"Nothing really, I've been helping mum a bit but she doesn't want anyone near. She's prepping dinner for tomorrow." Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Everyone staying on for that?"

"Yeah, Ron and Hermione are still in Australia obviously and Charlie's stuck in Romania but should be back for New Year," Ginny mumbled, "Luna's still here but Neville left the other day; he's spending Christmas with his grandmother and Hannah. Oh, and Bill and Fleur are heading off Boxing Day morning back to the Shell Cottage."

"Things are going to be a lot quieter then these days apart from the whole…third Wizarding World War…" Harry sighed.

"You seriously think there's going to be another one?" the mood became a little more tense again.

"Definitely," Harry began, "If more people were killed in one break-in than the Battle of Hogwarts then there's no doubt about it. There's going to be more deaths than ever…"

"I never thought Onya Lewis and Draco Malfoy were capable of this…"

Harry span towards her cricking his neck as he did in shock; "You knew Onya was before this?"

"In a way…yeah…she was in my year, we were in some classes together, gave me some grief…"

"She bullied you?" Ginny's revelations took Harry by great surprise, his voice became strangled.

"For a bit, then I grew up and learnt how to stand up for myself. She never bothered me again, until now."

"So she's always been a bitch then?"

They laughed. Fake, beautiful laughter as they pretended the things they discussed weren't what they were. Those names in reality burned Harry's insides but with Ginny they tried to forget their evil connotations. It was Christmas; he at least had to try and persevere through it and attempt to be just a little bit happy with Ron and Hermione absent and all of this hanging over him.

After the short-lived conversation about the troubles Harry and Ginny took to breakfast downstairs being ushered from the kitchen to the living room by a frantic Mrs Weasley. As lunch progressed Harry tried to ignore the blazing headline on Bill's Daily Prophet which saw investigations into the whereabouts of all of the Death Eaters. Harry and Ginny then continued to chat mindlessly about anything they thought was relevant back in her room until tea came around. They ate the meal outside within a specially erected marquee which was layered in thin frost. After a few alcoholic drinks back in the living room Harry and Ginny fell to sleep on the sofa until the next morning. When they awoke on Christmas morning the garden outside had been layered in at least a foot of snow, the tips of the gnomes hats poked out of it while the chickens wandered over its crusty surface, long icicle hung from the edges of the marquee canvas. Harry and Ginny excited at the prospect of Christmas quickly completed decorating, the family had struggled to cover the house in its usual festive decorations, the now fully adorned Christmas tree stood alight in the corner of the room when everyone woke up soon after.

The following events saw everyone open up the presents that they had bought and swapped (Harry felt more than guilty whilst opening his as he had failed to buy anyone anything due to his recent four day unconsciousness). He managed to acquire matching jumpers off Mr and Mrs Weasley with Ginny on which they had one another's names but Harry's was red and Ginny's green. Sent from Australia the Grangers gave him a book of Advanced Spells for Aurors which they took off Grabbleforn and Ron gave him a large Chudley Cannons hat which was bright orange. Charlie had sent a bottle of Dragon's blood from Romania, Bill and Fleur a large case of Butterbeers and George handed over an assortment of Wizard Wheezes gifts which he'd secured from storage, Luna had bought him a pair of Spectrespecs and Neville had left him a Remembrall (the previous two presents left Harry feeling happily nostalgic, their designated purpose).

After presents were opened the majority of the family sat in the living room and gossiped as Mrs Weasley led the front in preparing the Christmas dinner. When Harry walked past the kitchen there was shouting and screaming with plates, knives, forks and the occasional potato flew around the room. Finally by three o'clock they were all sat at the dining table under the marquee in the back garden where the long table was crammed with numerous plates crammed with piles upon piles of food. In between eating was the ripping open of various magical crackers which saw gifts such as large wizard hats, white mice and much more. After the meal finished they returned to the living room where they drank to excess in Butterbeer, Firewhisky, mead, rum, Elf Wine and Pumpkin Juice which was left not drunken in the corner of the room. It wasn't until the late evening when something new occurred on that day and it was the sudden sprinkling of green dust from the fireplace. When they all paid their attention to what was happening the fireplace was engulfed in emerald flames and in there were two faces in the ash which moved. It was Ron and Hermione! Harry rocketed ahead of the rest of the family and collapsed with his arms crossed facing them, they all shared wide grins.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" they chorused.

"Someone's lively?! Y'alright mate, how're the wrists?" Ron laughed.

"Yeah, yeah…much better," Harry shook his head, "Thanks for the presents!"

"And you." Hermione said.

Harry was flummoxed; "We kinda guessed Ginny would put your name on the present, considering you're unconsciousness." Ron explained.

"What was it?"

"Framed moving photograph of the four of us!" Hermione giggled picking up a frame from beside her and showing Harry it through the green flames in which he saw himself, Ginny, Ron and Hermione arm in arm laughing at the scene of his own birthday that year.

"It's nice…so…how's Christmas been without me?" Harry forced a dry laugh.

"Bit quieter…still quite hectic…Ministry Morons are here twenty four-seven." Ron complained with a smirk.

"How many?"

"Six I think…"

"There are three pairs of them, they alternate shifts on guarding the house," Hermione explained, "This whole area is surrounded in a bubble of around fifty defensive enchantments."

"Has Grabbleforn or anyone else come to visit while you've been there?" Ginny butted in.

"No, we've not seen anyone apart from this lot since we came here," Ron sighed, "So, what's happening in the outside world? We don't have a clue."

"Britain's in complete lockdown; the Wizarding World and the Muggle World. We've been shut off from the rest of the world who are taking their own precautions. We're preparing for whatever's waiting for us this time. If there's going to be war and destruction it's going to be contained here at least." Harry rushed to the shocked expressions on his friends' faces.

"We're pretty much stuck here then yeah?" Ron tried to make the current situation as light-hearted as genuinely possible.

"Looks like it doesn't it?"

"We better go, Ron." Hermione stated.

"Ministry Mongs'll get hung up if they find us talking to you. Floo Powder networks are being disallowed as we speak over here." Ron moaned.

"See you later then hey?" Harry felt his eyes sting with tears as Ron and Hermione concluded their talk, they exited the grate in the fireplace with smiles, waves and goodbyes exchanging with Ginny as the flames died and they were gone. Harry was left speechless and drained as he took to staring at the smoking pile of ash, Ginny placed an arm around him. Harry could hear Mrs Weasley exclaim loudly, disappointed at failing to talk to her youngest son who she evidently missed dearly but Mr Weasley tried his best to console her.

The Weasleys and Harry then returned to celebrating the day by trying their best to forget about their greetings from Hermione and Ron and everything that was revolving around them in the outside world. It was not until late that Christmas evening that their temporal happiness was distilled by the arrival of a single letter which was delivered by owl. At that current point Mr Weasley and George had fallen asleep drunk, Bill and Fleur chattered away with Mrs Weasley on the sofa whilst Harry, Ginny and Luna played Exploding Snap on the carpet. Then came the tip-tapping of the owl's beak against the glass of the window which Bill opened for the owl to fly through. It dropped the rolled up parchment onto Harry's lap before exiting the room again into the black winter night. He quickly unfurled the parchment and read aloud the letter that followed it;

_"' To Harry and the Weasleys, it is my sad duty to inform you that the memorial service for the sixty one wizards who were massacred at Hogwarts the other day will be tomorrow morning from ten o'clock onwards. It will commence within the Great Hall, it's facilities makeshift, with eulogies from the family and friends before their own tributes are placed in a secluded area of the courtyard. Merry Christmas; Kingsley.'"_

The room suddenly fell into a deathly silence, Harry's head which had just been emptied of so many dark thoughts about what was happening around him instantly refilled. On instinct he didn't want to go there, of course he didn't…he didn't want to go back to Hogwarts, there were too many memories there…and to remember the lives of people he knew, those he never knew and could of knew…he couldn't face it, he felt responsible for those deaths. Yet it'd be respectable…he had to make it up to them someday, he had to face his fears and today might be the day that's he'd have to accept it all and go to Hogwarts the following day.

"I'm going…" Harry muttered to break the icy silence in the room, allowing some of the Weasleys to issue gasps of shock at his statement. They were evidently surprised that he wanted to return to the school.

"Then I'm going too." Ginny tightened her arm around Harry.

Ginny had now cued the rest of the family to confer that they were going to go too excluding Bill and Fleur who were expected to leave at the crack of dawn that very morning. It was now set in stone; they were going to Hogwarts that next day to celebrate the lives of the unknown dead… Harry jumped to his feet and pulled Ginny aside from the room and into the hallway to talk in private.

"What's wrong?" she quickly quizzed him.

"Can we go to the Lake tomorrow?" Harry mumbled.

"As in the Black Lake?" Ginny gave Harry a bewildered stare.

"Yeah…" he muttered, "I'd like to just…have some time there…for Dumbledore…"

Ginny promptly nodded afore kissing him on the cheek and entering the living room again leaving Harry alone in the hallway to reflect the decision he had made. There was no going back now.


	24. Revertere ad Dominum Caeruleus

The clock on Harry's bedside table had just struck twenty seven minutes past five when Harry awoke from his slumber and silently slunk out of Ron's bedroom, down the rickety staircase before crashing on the sofa in the living room. Neither hungry nor thirsty he sat facing the wall as the previous night's lack of sleep washed over him along with a tad feeling of past drunkenness. His eyes were sore, his heart heavy and his breaths slow and heavy as pondered about the day's following events and how they would pan out. That very morning the Weasleys and himself were going to visit Hogwarts in order to pay their respects for the sixty one witches and wizards massacred by Draco and Onya. He couldn't help but be paranoid…he was worried about the possible lack of security at the venue…would Draco or Onya or any of the Death Eaters dare come near the event? After everything they had done, risking their lives to end others would they seriously strike again that day? Harry hadn't imagined his Boxing Day to run like it was going to. When the Battle of Hogwarts had come to a close all those months ago he believed he could have a normal life…but he found himself scared in his own home…his friends far away…his Christmas unable to complete with the overbearing presence of the memorial service. But he tried to shake off these feelings so he decided to take a look through the book the Grangers had sent to him. There he learnt numerous new defensive and offensive jinxes and curses within the space of an hour or so. By seven o'clock everybody was up in the Burrow ready to say their farewells to Bill and Fleur. They had their trunks packed at the kitchen door ready as the entire family vacated the garden in a number of teary hugs and waves which saw a reasonably bloated pregnant Fleur Disapparate into the morning mist with Bill hanging tightly to her. Following this Harry was berated by Ginny about his mysterious appearance in the living room that morning waiting for them all. Ignoring her pleads to talk through what was going on in his head he decided to make himself and her some breakfast which included toast and bacon with some Pumpkin Juice. Eventually by half past eight everybody was dressed in Muggle clothing or robes of some dark colour even including Luna who had turned up in her lurid yellow dress for her own father's funeral. By twenty to nine they took turns Disapparating together in the garden until they all materialised in the middle of Hogsmeade Village centre.

Harry, still disorientated from the lack of oxygen, crushed lungs and spinning of the Apparition now opened blurry eyes which landed on a familiar sight. Near to a shop front on the cobbled road was an area of scorched rock with some bloodstains. He let go of Ginny's hand and stared at the exact spot which he remembered burning at, he suddenly remembered the events that had happened there. He had collapsed, a shard of glass stuck in his stomach with blood creating a puddle around his burnt body. He wanted to forget those events and so looked upon the rest of the street in which more of the chaos he accidentally caused caught his eye. The majority of shops had their walls daubed in a layer of soot, their windows plastered with plank of flimsy wood (the windows' glass lay in a pile of white dust underneath on the ground). Only a few shops appeared to be open to the public, the streets were not that busy either, Harry only noticed three or four wizards and witches pass him by. Ginny took his hand and he jumped a little as she did so before turning to face her with a weak, fake smile. They then decided to follow the rest of the Weasleys who had taken head and walked towards Hogwarts which loomed over them. Harry could see the damage they had left to it from where he stood; the front of the castle saw its wall lie in large chunks of rubble on the cracked, burnt, blood-stained concrete paths. Some of the grass turf surrounding the sides of the Castle front was missing, the cast-iron gates were guarded by four burly wizards their wands crossed their chests. Harry took a gulp of cold air as he and Ginny made their way up through the empty high street until they exited the village and met the school itself.

Mr Weasley confirmed details with the Head Guard before he and his Deputy lifted their wands which opened up the gates with an eerie creak. They then all took tender footsteps past the place where they knew the original guards had been slaughtered on the spot. Eventually they fell into a stride towards the looming Entrance Hall doors which saw various deep scratches upon it. Near to the door Harry could hear the distant din of mumbling and talking of many wizards and witches as George opened up the entrance and they all entered one by one. In the Entrance Hall Harry picked up the pace of his stride as he tried to ignore the sights that adorned the room. As he had entered the buzz of many people died down and fell silent; Harry felt at least twenty pair of eyes fall on his back as he avoided a wide hole in the concrete floor. He then took to stepping on the severely singed carpet and took one last glimpse of the Entrance Hall's cracked, broken walls and smashed mirrors before walking ahead and taking to going into the Great Hall. As he pushed apart the damaged double doors the talking quietened and again all eyes darted towards him though many pretended they hadn't. Harry saw everything, he couldn't remain staring at his own shoes anymore but could not resist it. He scanned the vast room with his eyes, as they roved he witnessed the destruction the Battle had caused. Massive chunks of the concrete walls were missing, their remnants scattered in pieces across the skewered dusty surface of the ground. The Four Tables that usually resided within the Hall's centre had been crammed on either side of the room though Harry noticed two of them had been burnt and snapped in places. Instead the Hall was now flooded with what appeared at least two hundred spindly wooden chairs with a split down the middle where people could walk down. Only a few rows were still vacated, the Weasleys took an entire one to themselves on the left two from the back. As Harry sat at the end beside Ginny he noticed Neville and Luna at the other end giving him warm smiles, encouraging smiles… He just managed to return one back as he noticed the platform area where the teachers' table usually sat had been removed, only a small plinth stood there now for anyone to go up. He checked his watch, it had just turned nine o'clock and a small group of wizards and witches stood up and took to the stage, one of the wizards it seemed had organised the event with the Ministry as he introduced what was happening before kicking off a eulogy for one of his own relatives who had been caught in the massacre. Harry knew these details, he heard mouths moving and making words but he had resorted to staring at the ceiling where the sky was iron grey and rumbling with thunder through the many clouds.

As the eulogies from numerous families consecutively ran Ginny took a firm grasp of Harry's hand but he remained solemn and staring into space, the words from the people talking rushing over him, it was just noise…

_'This can't be happening again…it just can't…' _the same sentence repeated itself within his head as the two hours or so passed by in the Great Hall. Harry's attention span had been lost as soon as he had Apparated within Hogsmeade Village but then…abruptly…his attention was caught. One row ahead on the right something suspicious was occurring. A heavily cloaked figure sat at the end of the row fidgeting and alone, no-one else seemed to be of their company…it appeared just like Harry that they were not concentrating either however the figure seemed to shifting off its seat. With everyone focused upon the centre platform and the Robinson family speaking it seemed now was the ideal time for whoever it was to silently slink out of the Hall. They gingerly took to their feet and tip-toed towards the exit, Harry whose hand had been sub-consciously separated from Ginny's decided to copy and follow. The figure slipped out of the Hall as Harry approached the back of it, nobody appeared to be looking in his direction as he quietly stepped out of the room. Now in the Entrance Hall he picked up the pace in his stride and promptly exited it into the pathway where he saw the cloaked figure begin to race around the side of the castle into the courtyard. Harry decided to jog behind the figure and unsheathed his wand as he did. The following became continuous as the mysterious witch or wizard headed towards the Black Lake. The figure was completely unaware that Harry was following them as they strode across the lawns and the concrete of the courtyard and grounds. Around him Harry saw the damage that had been done to the school, still as there were no one left to do any work, the ground remained cracked and ripped apart in places with dried out blood stains across them. Parts of the castle walls lay in dusty remnants across the perimeter of the building layered with a thick blanket of crushed glass. As Harry rushed past the destroyed areas of the castle he surpassed broken wands, shredded broomsticks, snapped daggers and crooked arrows trying to ignore all the signs that tried to remind him of the horrors that had happened where he walked. Instead he focused on his destination which ironically was worse as it was the place where Dumbledore's White Tomb was hidden as well as where Harry had burnt his portrait. Harry was uncomfortable and uneasy at the prospect of seeing that lakeside again but he was determined on discovering the identity of the mysterious stranger and what their purpose of going to the lakeside was…the figure halted…they were there…at the lakeside…

The grass was blanketed in white frost, the cobbled embankment glazed with a layer of ice, the Lake was frozen over, solid blank and reflecting the winter sunlight back at Harry. Harry nearly stumbled but managed to keep himself stood up as the figure continued across the grass towards Dumbledore's tomb. Harry gave the blackened area of the embankment a guilty stare as he carried on following the stranger into the clearing in the middle of at least six dense trees. Harry decided to hold back and hide behind the thickest of them as the stranger made its way towards the White Tomb. In the middle of the clearing there it stood upon a thick platform surrounded with four pillars; the marble white tomb in which encased Dumbledore's corpse. Harry immediately became slightly tearful and sick as he began to imagine what might possibly lie within the coffin itself. Harry also now speculated that this person whoever it was might of known Dumbledore and had come to pay their respects. But there was another side of Harry that suspected that this stranger had ulterior motives in being in the deceased professor's vicinity. Harry's suspicions thickened when the stranger suddenly drew a wand from the depths of their black robes and with a quick slashing movement the marble of the tomb cracked from the middle like a sledgehammer had been whacked against it. The marble broke into two individual pieces! Harry from where he stood routed to the spot, unable to speak saw a glimpse of Dumbledore's rotting, broken body lying in the tomb. His face had been decomposed, a lot of the skin missing and the rest peeling off of his slightly visible bone structure. The shining white beard and long hair had fallen out and now his dusty half-moon spectacles lay on the broken bone that once formed his nose. With his arms crossed, in between his blackened fingers lay the Elder Wand which Hagrid on Harry's request had placed back with the body after some Ministry officials fixed the Tomb both done because of one of Voldemort's last escapades here (stealing the wand). The wand in which, the stranger now leant forwards to take for themselves!

"SHOW YOURSELF!" Harry's bellow echoed around the empty clearing, some crows departed their nest within the depths of the trees' bush of leaves. With his wand now pointed shakily towards the stranger, the latter whizzed around taking the wand with it as their hood toppled down to reveal none other than Draco Malfoy. There then was seconds of deathly silence which saw Harry and Draco share a prolonged stare of horror and anger.

"WHY'RE YOU TAKING DUMBLEDORE'S WAND?!" Harry abruptly screeched, sparks flew from the tip of his wand as he shuddered with rage.

"I know what it really is! IT IS THE ELDER WAND!" Draco broke into an absurd bout of manic laughter as he shook excited, holding the Elder Wand in his left hand.

"How do you know that?!" Harry demanded of him.

"McKINNON! He came across it when Fudge was Minister for the second time. He investigated the whole thing. He knew you were the Master of Death and knew the Elder Wand must be here! There was a transition of wands at your final duel with the Dark Lord, the same one was buried with Dumbledore! And now we have it!"

"WHO'S WE?!"

"Myself and Onya Lewis."

Harry gave Draco a look of wild bemusement; "You've betrayed McKinnon?"

"He didn't know what he was doing. He wouldn't know…we do."

"So you're going to kill me then? I've fallen into your trap early by mistake?" Harry left Draco surprisingly smug.

"To become the master of the wand I must kill its owner. However, I don't want to become the owner of the wand because if I am the owner it will never work…"

Harry cut across him; "WHAT WON'T?!"

"Mustn't tell…" Draco winked at him as he began to turn on his heels to Disapparate, with security still building on the school this one was still left unprotected. Harry dived forwards and managed to grab the tail of Draco's robes as he finished his turning and the pair were suddenly sucked into the atmosphere. Draco now tried to resist Harry's determined attempt to cling to his robes as he Disapparated but now Draco tried to return to Hogwarts or land elsewhere, changing directions. In a mad blur of colours and shapes and sounds Harry could just see Draco solidly above him as they span continually. Harry had never looked around when Disapparating but now he had the time as the journey twisted and changed abruptly every second as they span through nothingness. Draco tried desperately to shake Harry off but instead the latter managed to shimmy up Draco's torso but Draco nearly threw him off of him. However they then clung to one another as they tousled through the constant blur until it cut short. In the blink of an eye Harry was swung side wards by an invisible force so that he slammed face first into cold, solid earth. He reopened his eyes to discover the left lense on his glasses cracked, ignoring that and the apparent cut and bruise on his left cheek he jumped up. He adjusted to his new surroundings, a bigger clearing in a forest that wasn't so densely populated by trees, there was a stream nearby…Harry turned on the spot… "INCARCEROUS!"

Harry collapsed to the ground bounded in tight ropes and rolled onto his back and sat up to see the caster; Onya Lewis who stood triumphant nearby alongside Draco, the Elder Wand rested in his left hand. Both shared wide, smug grins on their faces as they stared at Harry who struggled instantly against the bonds holding him down.

"GET ME OUT OF THIS!" he hollered at them immediately as Draco chuckled, Onya shook her head pompously.

"Ah…poor naïve Potter…" Onya spat, "He followed you?" she turned to Draco.

"Couldn't shake him off…he knows we know about the Hallows and that we betrayed McKinnon."

"Does he know what we're going to do?"

"No…"

Draco and Onya gave Harry a blank stare each before continuing their speedy conversation which left Harry's mouth agape and his eyes wide.

"He may as well stay…he'd find out anyway…" Onya muttered.

"The what? Kill him?" Harry jumped aback as Draco said those words and again tried to desperately come loose of the bonds holding him there.

"No, we can't let anyone kill him…not yet. He's got to remain the Master of the Hallows otherwise it won't work. We'll keep him hostage until the time is right." Draco nodded at her plan as she took from the depths of her robes none other than the Resurrection Stone.

"WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT?!" Harry suddenly blurted as Draco stashed away his own wand, Onya gave Harry a look of glee, "WHY HAVE YOU GOT THE STONE AND THE WAND?! If you want to become Masters of Death why are you deliberately keeping me alive?! What's your plan?! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?!"

Draco gave Onya a questioning look as Harry screamed, she nodded curtly so that he could near Harry and kneel beside him.

"With Fudge in power McKinnon had access to everything. He worked out you were the Master of the Hallows, the only way you could survive and defeat the Dark Lord. He assumed two of the objects were in Hogwarts and hid documents concerning potential exploitation of them for other uses. We betrayed McKinnon and have taken them for ourselves," Harry began extremely anxious and scared, cold sweat trickled down his bruised face as Draco continued to explain, "It appears we're going to do what we've planning to do for a long while today! Isn't that right, Onya?"

"Yes, Draco!" Onya giggled waltzing near to them before explaining to Harry, "We were going to have some trouble finding you for your blood but it seems you've invited yourself early!"

Harry knew something bad was going to happen soon but he had no idea what and instead of appearing frightened or defenceless he decided to try and act more confident in himself; "You two are an item then?" he joked, Draco slapped him around the face.

"Making jokes isn't going to get you out of this one Potter." Draco snarled.

"Aren't they funny enough? Same thing must of happened to your father…" Harry remarked, Draco suddenly launched on top of Harry and tried to punch everywhere of him that he could see until Onya dragged him away.

"CHILDISH! It's just stupid childishness Draco!" Onya shook him firmly, Draco winced at the pain in his now bleeding knuckles as he glimpsed at Harry who lay on the ground his face coated in crimson which had spurted from many new cuts.

"We are going to do this now!" Draco ordered, Onya muttered what sounded like confirmation as Draco rushed towards a semi-conscious Harry who Draco pulled up by his jacket roughly. Draco placed the Elder Wand on the ground near to Harry's shin as he took out a small silver knife and an empty vial. Though Harry tried to resist Draco the latter tore the right hand side of Harry's jacket and shirt sleeves off before slicing the forearm producing a thick stream of blood as Harry screamed and protested as Draco collected what seemed like a full vial of Harry's blood. He stashed away the knife and went to pick up the wand again, Harry had shuffled forwards, arms still entrapped beneath bonds, trying to gain hold of the wand with his free fingers. Draco quickly took the wand and jumped up before giving Harry a swift kick to the face causing the latter to crash to the solid earth with force that snapped one of the arms off of Harry's glasses and caused his mouth to split open and a tooth to fall out.

Draco ambled towards Onya with the vial of blood in one hand and the Elder Wand on the other as Onya removed the documentation that they had stolen. She flicked to one of the many pages and read out instructions which Harry only just managed to hear, his ears full of blood and white noise as he tried to sit up and view what was happening.

"Mount the stone somewhere, Draco…" Onya with the documents she was reading in one hand offered the Stone to Draco in the other which he took and placed on a large rock nearby, "Now, add one drop of the blood onto it." Draco then dribbled one drop of Harry's blood onto the Stone, it appeared to dissolve into it and when it did it sizzled with a jet of white steam. Draco and Onya shared a look as she asked him; "Do you want to do it or shall I?"

"I think you deserve it…" Draco popped a cork onto the vial and put it into his robes as he walked back over to Onya and handed over the Elder Wand.

On the other side of the clearing Harry had recovered from his semi-consciousness and was now sat upright and struggling against the robes that bound him and he began to shout wildly; "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Onya span around rolling the wand between her fingers and bellowed; "WE'RE BRINGING HIM BACK! Using your blood, the Wand and the Stone against your own will we can resurrect him! THE DARK LORD RISES ONCE MORE!"

Harry stopped shaking violently and sat bloodied and aching, sweat dripping down his bruised and cut face and stared directly at Onya as she breathed heavily with momentum, a wide evil grin on her triumphant visage. Harry then launched into panic.

In a wild hysterical fit of screaming and tears Harry jolted in his bonds, shaking with more fear than he had ever experienced, dread flooded his suddenly cold body; "NO! YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T BRING HIM BACK! YOU CAN'T! HE'LL KILL ME! HE'LL KILL US ALL! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING! LISTEN TO ME! JUST PLEASE LISTEN TO ME! HE CAN'T COME BACK! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! YOU CAN'T! DON'T DO THIS! PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU!"

Harry's cries for Draco and Onya to stop didn't bother them, instead it encouraged them. With the incantation remembered Onya stored the documents in her robes and pushed Draco back as she faced the rock where the blood immersed stone now lay silent and unmoving. Harry continued to scream, his throat feeling like it had been torn, as he balled and quivered madly as Onya temporarily closed her eyes before walking to the rock and turning the Stone in her free hand before placing back and taking a few steps backwards. As she lifted the wand in the Stone's direction it began to emit a ghostly glow and the ground began to shake, Harry noticed amongst his blurred vision a blackbird fall from its nest. Onya then uttered nervously;

"With the blood of the Master of Death drawn in revenge, his Hallows forcibly taken I speak to thee as the conqueror of the owner of the invincible items. As I have turned the Stone of Resurrection and casted with the Wand of Elder, I request the return to life of my beloved; Tom Marvolo Riddle Junior, to continue their existence from whence they left it until the day they die once more and for eternity."

The shaking of the ground grew worse and flung Draco and Onya onto the floor, Harry just managed to stay upright as birds from every tree around them dropped to the floor dead. The Resurrection Stone then lifted upwards into mid-air as Onya stashed away the Elder Wand, the glow around the Stone grew and became brighter and whiter. Harry felt some of his bonds coming loose as what seemed like a massive earthquake shook the ropes free. The crack in the Stone then opened up and a gigantic gust of rushing cold air swept out of it ripping branches and countless leaves off of the trees, Harry felt the skin on his cheeks ripple backwards as he used his free fingers to untangle the remainder of his bonds. The Stone flipped, the vacuum of light now faced the ground where the dust began to swirl in a circular motion. The swirling then got faster and faster and higher and higher and thicker and thicker. Eventually as the trees were stripped bare, some uprooted and the rest illuminated by the increasing vacuum of dazzling light the ice began to crack around the spot where the Stone had focussed on. The snow melted and the ground cracked as Harry ejected himself from the robes and was flung flat onto the earth by the continuous shaking of the area. Then, through the thick swirling of dust a solidified shape began to form from the bottom upwards. On the ground toes began to form…then feet…and legs…a torso…fingers…two arms…shoulders…then a neck which slowly grew out of it a head… The naked body was pallid and ghostly white, the hands and fingers looked like large white spiders. The head was hairless with two slits for nostrils and gleaming red eyes. The shaking stopped, the white light and the air disappeared, the Resurrection Stone closed and fell back onto the lone rock. The resurrection was completed and now there he stood…

Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort's eyes flickered as he rolled his head around his neck examining his whereabouts and his own body. Onya removed a black cloak from her robes and walked towards Voldemort who turned to her and hastily took it off of her and threw it around him. Curious of what was happening he did not speak as he turned back around for another look at where he was until his eyes met something of interest. There he lay in the dust and the leaves, surrounded by dead birds on the cracked surface of the ground…Harry. Semi-conscious and free from the ropes that had banded him Harry was unaware that Voldemort took several steps towards him. Until he rocketed up onto his feet and the two finally met each other's eyes for the first time in what felt like a million years…Harry drenched in sweat, blood and tears felt his heart knocking against his ribs, he breathed heavily as Voldemort titled his head at him. There was no sound, everything had gone quiet…Onya and Draco held one another's hand in the distance.

"Harry Potter."

Voldemort suddenly charged at Harry as fast as his bare feet could carry him across the clearing, his long nailed hands ahead of him as he screamed. Harry on instinct drew his wand and fired a non-verbal hex at Voldemort which sent him flying backwards as Harry turned on his heel and Disapparated. In doing so he left Voldemort to crash to the ground in anguish, as Harry dissolved into the atmosphere he heard Voldemort issue a cry; "NYEAH!" the colours and shapes of the world around him then blurred as one as Harry was swung off of his feet into a constant spin of no gravity for several seconds before landing on a floor of solid oak.

Harry opened his eyes, the floor he lay on fuzzy as his glasses hung by one lone arm on his right ear until he adjusted them so they rested back on his nose. Harry, feeling weak and achy pushed himself up off of the wooden floor and sat on his heels. He wiped his forehead to remove a thick layer of gravel, soil, dust and blood, wincing as his battered fingers caressed the deep cuts in his face. He inspected his forearm; the slice Draco had made was deep and still oozing blood which trickled down to the torn sleeves of his jacket and shirt. He realised he was breathing heavily and a few tears dribbled down his face as he went to stand up. When he did he grabbed his head feeling an ache there, he also felt slightly drowsy and a bit disorientated. He felt like he was missing something…something important…he gingerly stroked the side of his bruised face and up to his skull. He felt it pulsing…was it his brain? There was blood there…he was bleeding…had he hit his head? He didn't remember. He didn't remember much. The last few minutes were a blur to him, he wasn't thinking straight. Would he ever think straight again? Then it dawned on him…he had hit his head…he had some sort of amnesia he must do. Pieces were missing from the jigsaw puzzle that was his bank of memories…

_'Where am I?'_

Harry revolved on the spot to acclimatise to his new surroundings, he was in the Headmaster's Office at Hogwarts but he was unsure of how he had got there in the first place or why he was there. The room had to be the only one in the castle unaffected by the horrors that had pursued all that time ago in the Battle. Everything was as Harry had left it back in May excluding the fact that now Dumbledore's portrait did not reside over the chair at the back of the office behind the desk but instead another painting. One that had never originally been considered to be made due to his false presentation during that past year until Harry had his own way. There he sat awake and alert in the frame of his portrait, his sallow skinned face solemn under the curtains of greasy black hair. He stared at Harry with his cold, grey eyes over the hooked nose until he muttered monotonously; "Potter?"

"Professor Snape?" It was Severus Snape, one-time Potions Master and Defence Against the Dark Arts professor turned Headmaster. He had been a double-agent working for the Order of the Phoenix in secret under the orders of Albus Dumbledore to protect Harry and to spy on Voldemort for over eighteen years. Until the Battle of Hogwarts, when Snape was murdered by Voldemort and his pet snake Nagini because Voldemort thought Snape was the true owner of the Elder Wand, Harry did not know these facts. Snape had done this inspired by his life-long unrequited love for Harry's mother; Lily. As a repayment for all he had done for him Harry had tried to spread the truth of how brave a man Snape turned out to be and ordered the Ministry to install his painting in the office in Dumbledore's place. Harry hadn't spoken to the professor since his death where not many words were exchanged, just the memories Snape held of his true identity and what Harry must do to defeat Voldemort. He now wondered what would happen next.

"Why are you here, Potter? How did you get in here? What is it that you want?" Snape quizzed Harry with darting eyes as Harry wandered over to the painting.

"I don't know." He murmured.

"How do you not know? You either know or you don't?" Snape snapped.

"I don't remember…"

"I saw you Apparate in here. But you can't Apparate within these grounds?"

"I Apparated in here? Did I? I think I've got amnesia…I can't really remember anything that's happened recently…"

Snape sniffed and cocked his head as he surveyed the office he once owned, the other portraits surrounding him were snoozing in their frames as he continued to talk; "I'm guessing Dumbledore's plan worked then? You're still alive."

"He planned for me to live?!" Harry exclaimed abruptly.

"Yes…obviously…why do you think I had to kill him you moronic fool? Where is Albus anyway?"

Silence fell.

"I…erm, well…" Harry found it hard to explain, he couldn't find the words to tell Snape of how he had destroyed Dumbledore's painting but Snape cut Harry's thought pattern off.

"I know what you did," Harry raised his eyebrows at Snape's statement, he looked quite saddened, "He knew you'd have to destroy the portrait."

"He did?"

"Yes, Potter," Snape appeared a little bit more emotional in tone than he usually would in his manner, "My apologies but do you mind if I called you Harry from hereafter?"

"Yes, of course, professor…"

"So, the memories worked did they? You best not of informed anyone of my…lacrimation…it was for only for its intended purpose of producing the memories for the Pensieve." Snape seemed a little out of character, slightly paranoid and a bit anxious he was making sure everything had gone to plan.

"Yeah and erm…professor…thank you," Harry saw Snape turn his eye-contact off with Harry and pretend to focus on another part of the room, Harry gulped, "I'd also like to say…sorry." Snape now whipped back around to see Harry, Snape's painted eyes glinted with tears. The latter mumbled something under his breath in reply to what Harry had said.

"It has come to my attention that you aren't so much like your father after all…Harry…" Snape's voice cracked, "No…second thoughts…I hated your father. He tormented me…he ruined my school years and I'd never forgive him for that, he wasn't a good person at the point. However, he redeemed himself and saw the error of his ways and the thing is, Harry…All I ever wanted was for Lily to be happy and your father made her happy like I never could and I thank him for that. And I thank you, for all you have done for me…In fact, for the first time I think it's time that I forgave and forgot. I forgive your father Harry," Snape sat back in the chair within his portrait which leaned against walls of satin green, "I forgive James Potter."

There was a silence as Harry tried to grabble this new side to Snape. Was it death that had done this to him because he never remembered Snape showing any kind of emotion during the time he had known him.

"My mum…you really did? Didn't you?" Harry felt strangely comfortable on the topic of Snape's love for Lily as he continued, "I mean, you still do…after all this time?"

"Always." Snape wiped a single tear away from his dark eyes.

"Imagine if you hadn't been tempted by the Dark Arts? You could of resolved things with my mum and my dad and all those years you spent hating me could have been so much different."

"Things wouldn't be the same though, it would of never had worked. I'm glad I hated you."

"This has got to be our first conversation where you aren't deducting points off me or giving me a detention isn't it, professor?"

Snape being who he was didn't laugh but in his own way he produced a sly smirk, "And you're not calling me a coward and using my own spells against me."

"Well, you're definitely not a coward," Harry reassured him, "You're the bravest man I've ever known. You never know I might name one of my children after you, professor?"

Snape shook his head, "These circumstances are mad. You shall not name your child, Severus, Harry."

"Fine, I'll give to them as a middle name."

They fell into a another few moments of silence.

"Your amnesia…?"

Harry suddenly remembered his and Snape's previous topic of conversation before they veered off, as soon as Snape spoke Harry jumped up from the headmaster's chair he had slunk onto.

"Oh gawd, yeah!" he exclaimed.

"There is a spell that can clear the mind and bring back memories of past events forgotten. It involves you to focus as hard as possible and say the incantation; _Brimanus Cleranti._"

Harry gave a mumbled thanks as he took out his wand from his jeans pocket and held it by his side as Snape nodded for him to proceed. He then closed his eyes tightly and began to try and not think of anything else, clearing out thoughts of Snape, Lily and James as he lifted the wand towards his head. Then, with his head clear he muttered the incantation softly; "_Brimanus Cleranti_" when suddenly a stream of images flickered by at top speed through his head before they cut short and left Harry to drop to floor with a large gasp that made Snape exclaim; "Harry?!"

When Harry re-opened his eyes he remembered everything that had happened to him, why he was there with Snape. Draco and Onya had killed all the volunteers…Harry had come with the Weasleys to pay their respects…Harry had followed a cloaked figure to Dumbledore's tomb…it was Malfoy, they Disapparated…the clearing with Onya…the Stone…the Wand…the blood…

Voldemort.

Harry began to shake violently as he pushed himself back onto his feet, a stream of stinging tears flooded out of his eyes as he tried to speak but his words got stuck in his throat as he began to hyperventilate.

"HARRY?!" Snape cried, "Why are you here? What happened, Harry? What is it that you remember? Tell me everything."

Harry attempted to calm himself down and when he just about managed to do this he began to explain everything that had happened but as quickly as he could. Snape encouraged Harry to tell him every detail against his will. The flashbacks Harry was forced to endure as he told his story made him flinch and his heart skip a beat. _The Stone…the Wand…the blood…the birds…the light…the wind…the quake…the resurrection…_

Eventually the storytelling came to an end leaving both Harry and Snape speechless. Harry was left shaky and tear-ridden, his mouth agape whilst Snape's dark eyes flickered as he wrung his hands in thought.

"We need to warn the world that he's back, Harry and we must do it now!" Snape stood up in his frame, "You need to tell everybody here as soon as possible!"

"But what if they think I'm mad? How can I prove he's back?!" Harry doubted.

"You can expel the contents of the Pensieve publically instead of it being viewed by one person at a time! The spell is; _Pravuwa Maximo_"

"But I've never produced…'Memories' before! How do I do it?!"

"Focus as much as you can on the specific part of the memory, you don't want them to see the truth, and then just drag it from your mind! You can do it! Now, go! Go and get the Pensieve!" Snape ushered Harry who ran off to the other side of the office in order to find the Pensieve leaving Snape to awake his fellow ex-heads of school.

"GET UP! ALL OF YOU! UP! NOW!" he ordered.

The headmasters and mistresses who had been snoozing in their frames jumped awake disgruntled and annoyed at Snape;

"What do you want you traitorous thug?!" groaned Walter Aragon.

"Where's the fire you blithering idiot?!" snapped Quentin Trimble.

"What's the need of this nonsense Snape?!" complained Phineas Nigellus-Black.

"You-Know-Who is back! You must go to your other portraits and tell anyone and everyone!" he cried.

"Don't be ridiculous you stirring spiteful swine!" cried Phyllida Spore.

"I am deadly serious!"

"We don't take orders from cowards like you!" spat Armando Dippet.

"HE IS NOT A COWARD!" Harry had just dragged the shallow basin that was the Pensieve out of one of the back cupboards in the office before dropping it at Dippet's remark, the portraits stunned began to whisper his name in amazement "THIS MAN IS THE BRAVEST MAN I HAVE EVER KNOWN! WHATEVER YOU THINK OF HIM IS WRONG! I TRUST HIM AND IF HE TELLS YOU TO DO SOMETHING THEN YOU BLOODY DO IT!"

The portraits gave him wide-eyed stares of shock and took glimpses at Snape who looked stunned yet rather smug as Harry bellowed; "WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?! GET LOST! YOU KNOW WHO IS BACK! NOW, GO!"

As soon as Harry issued those words the headmasters and mistresses exited their frames as speedily as they could as Snape gestured towards the office door to Harry; "You must go."

"Thank you," Harry muttered as he picked the Pensieve back up and forced his way through the door and out into the spiral staircase.

Harry then took out his wand again and caused the Pensieve to levitate behind him at a similar speed as he began to dart down the stairs and into the corridor that guided people towards the headmaster's office. Harry stopped dead as he tripped over the smashed open head of the one standing gargoyle guard whose body lay in dust behind him. When Harry looked up from the gargoyle's remains he started to notice various damage to the school as began to start running again through it all. During his run to the Great Hall closely followed by the P Pensieve, he noticed walls caved, corridor floors cracked, room doors burnt and stripped, windows smashed both in and out. Torn parchment was strewn across the classroom floors with bottles of smashed ink on the ceiling, Harry was sure he saw some teeth and many bloodstains and at one point a leg bone. As he ran, twisting and turning at every corner the flashbacks he envisaged became more and more painful as he remembered so much.

Crossing wand streams, the red and the green…the drawn-out blood-curdling screams…the flying bodies, the flash of crimson…the smash, the crash and bangs…Voldemort's voice…

He had arrived, the Pensieve still bobbing beside him Harry pushed open the double doors of the Great Hall and ran in to find it empty apart from one last person who was making their way up the split in the middle. It was Ginny. Harry stopped dead.

"Harry?" she continued to walk towards him, "Where did you go? What's happened to you? What the hell's that?"

Harry raced forwards and lunged at her and gave her a tight embrace before releasing her and ignoring her exclaims as they became more frequent and more worried before he gestured her to follow him. One after the other they exited the Hall and the Entrance into the courtyard where the two-hundred members of families and friends stood facing a large memorial that had been erected for them to lay down bouquets of flowers, parchment tributes and much more. Harry decided to sprint towards them shortly followed by Ginny who decided to keep at the back of the crowd as Harry cut his way through against the many protests of various people including the Weasleys who urged him to retreat. It wasn't until Harry made it to the front of the crowd that they all turned silent and became horrified at the sight of the damage he had suffered. As they exclaimed and chattered away the Pensieve hovered over their heads and dropped in front of Harry.

He blocked out everything. All the exclamations, the shouting and the whispering…he tried to focus on the image of Voldemort's body forming from the dust and trying to kill him but it was difficult. The memory already was a dreadful and mortifying one to reminisce but now trying to ignore the continuing shouting of the Weasleys who begged to know of his actions it was even more difficult. Eventually after what felt like forever he managed to cancel out the sound of the world as he focused on the horrific memory and drew out his wand. He felt the memory solidifying in his head as he pricked the side of it with his wand. He flicked opened his eyes to see himself pull out a stream of a silvery gas-like substance that was his Memory. Elated at the fact he'd managed to pull it off he eagerly quickened up the process until he had the Memory hanging off the tip of his wand before throwing it into the depths of the Pensieve. The exclamations continued as Harry span his wand facing the basin and shouted; "_Pravuwa Maximo_!" Instantly regretting his decision to perform the spell the silver substance which had spread in the bottom of the shallow Pensieve suddenly dissolved into a silver dust cloud and floated towards one of the broken walls of Hogwarts. There it expanded to form a large square screen of transparent silver that shivered as the crowd fell silent and turned to watch what was happening with it. Abruptly an image started to form into place of himself, Harry decided it was best to close his eyes and muffle the sound with his ears as the Memory began to play. Harry heard muffled the quake…the air rushing through the trees…his own screaming…Voldemort's cry…then there was the crowd itself who let out blood curdling screeches…there were whimpers and cries of terror even when the images stopped projecting and the screen dissolved back into a floating gas which flew back into the Pensieve. Harry then flicked opened his eyes and let go of his ears to hear the chaos that ensued. He turned round to crowd as they started to run off in various directions screaming and crying, many crashed to the rubble covered concrete and began to rock, curled in a ball. Harry saw the Weasleys rush towards him lead by Ginny who was pouring in tears when she reached she pulled him into a back-breaking hug and gave him a kiss on the mouth. When she released him and he tried to wipe away her tears, she trembled and stroked his wounds they couldn't manage to produce any words…she dropped her head onto his chest…he felt her shaking…

"I-I-I don't understand…" Ginny had managed to calm herself down enough to speak with a slight shudder in her tone of voice, "You d-destroyed all the pieces of h-h-his soul, didn't you? I th-thought the Elder Wand…k-killed him? How is he back, H-Harry? W-why? W-w-who?"

"I'll explain later," he spoke soothingly, "We can't talk here."

"W-w-what's going to happen, now?"

"I got Snape to get all the portraits in his old office to spread the news as far and as fast as they could…"

"Snape?!" Ginny interrupted him, "His portrait? The one y-y-you ordered to have up?"

"Yeah…"

"Why did you g-g-go there first?"

"I Disapparated from that clearing and landed in the office by accident. I had amnesia, didn't remember a thing…I talked to Snape and eventually he help me get my memory back. He told me the spell to expel the contents of the Pensieve so everyone could view my memory…" Harry quickly reiterated.

"That's w-w-what that is? It shows memories-s?" Ginny trembled glancing behind her where the Pensieve stood alone, "But why did it t-t-take so long for Snape to help you with your memories?"

"We talked…" Harry gulped, he wasn't sure whether talking about Snape and his unrequited love for his mother would be any use to Ginny but he had to tell someone, "He knew I had to burn Dumbledore…we talked about my mum…he forgave my dad…"

"He f-forgave your dad?" Ginny yelped a little.

"Yeah…and he called me Harry!"

"Aha…" Harry's mild attempt to lift up the mood of conversation was working on a low level.

"What do we do now, hey? Think I might head off to the Auror Office…"

"Don't be stupid!" Ginny hit him softly on the arm, still in their embrace, "You've got to come home, it's the safest place for you."

"But it's my job."

"I don't care, I don't want my Harry getting into any more danger." She whispered in his ear.

"Maybe I might, but they've found me before there." He worried.

"It won't do any harm…we've got the best protection you could possibly get."

"I don't know…"

"Trust me." Ginny placed her hand onto his chest where his heart resided.

Harry put his hand on top of hers, "Always."

Harry and Ginny released one another and gave each other one last look as the rest of the Weasleys, Neville and Luna approached them.

"We've got to go!" Mr Weasley exclaimed to the nods of Harry and Ginny who traipsed to meet them in the middle. Mr Weasley then took Mrs Weasley's hand, Neville took Luna's, George, Harry and Ginny put theirs together. They then all individually Disapparated from the courtyard leaving behind the raucous of strangled screams and patter of paranoid footsteps that ran. The world blended into a multitude of coloured blurs with no shape, a fierce wind in his face Harry felt his feet leave the concrete and spin around him for the third time that morning until he crash-landed onto grass. That grass was in a garden and the garden belonged to that of the Burrow, Harry realised this when he opened up his eyes and jumped up, ignoring the stinging cuts on his face.

"Get inside everyone!" Mr Weasley ordered them immediately as everyone began to trundle towards the house except… "Neville! George! Luna! Lend me hand in setting up defences up! NOW!" Neville, Luna and George turned back around and unsheathed their wands before Mr Weasley gave them instructions. Harry, Ginny and Mrs Weasley vacated the kitchen and shut the door behind them as they saw the three men arch their wands to the sky and send up various enchantments.

"Oh, Harry, dear!" Mrs Weasley turned to Harry and gave him a back-breaking embrace as she sobbed slightly; "What happened to you?! How is this happening?! Why?!"

"I'll explain later…" Harry replied releasing himself from the hug for Mrs Weasley to stroke his face which he flinched at. She let go and took out her wand.

"Ginny grab be some Essence of Dittany, Murtlap and bandages please!" Ginny promptly, understanding her mother's orders, dashed to one of the many cupboards in the kitchen and took out from it the things required and put them on the table beside Harry.

Mrs Weasley then removed Harry's glasses so his vision became a blur and began to try and work around the damage as carefully as she could to help him. With her wand she managed to clear up some of the bruises and seal up most of the cuts on his face but was unable to do anything about his cut lip. She also mentioned briefly as she uncorked the bottle of Dittany that his jaw had been dislocated, Harry realised it must have been from the kick to the face Draco had given him. She then dabbed some of the essence onto a flannel she took from the table and vigorously rubbed his hands with it. Immediately some of the cuts there began to disappear as she then uncorked the Murtlap and told him to close his eyes before rubbing it into every crevasse of his face. Whereas the dittany felt like water on his hands, the Murtlap stung his face as he felt it drop into every available cut. He opened his eyes back up as Mrs Weasley then poured nearly half of the bottle onto the flannel, going to apply it to Harry's large tear in his arm. She squeezed the flannel till it was dry so that all of the Murtlap essence dripped into the deep wound causing the still trickling ooze of blood to reverse and return to arm which saw a new layer of skin begin to form over the wound. As this gradually stopped Mrs Weasley unrolled what was at least a foot of bandage and wrapped it tightly around Harry's arm. She took a step back to look at it.

"Beautiful as ever."

Harry and Ginny shared a short laugh as Mrs Weasley said this, the latter went to pick up Harry's one-armed glasses and asked him; "What happened to the other arm?"

"Lost." Harry sighed.

"How do you suppose we fix them then? Or do we get a new pair all together?"

Harry looked upon the round spectacles that he owned for as long as he could remember and simply said, "No."

"Well?" Mrs Weasley probed him.

"I'm sure we can do something about it mum…" Ginny gave Harry a supportive smile as she said this, "WAIT!"

Harry and Mrs Weasley exchanged bemused glances as Ginny darted off upstairs.

"Where's she…?" Harry began to ponder.

"No idea," Mrs Weasley cut in, turning to Harry with a sad look, "Why are we pretending?"

"I don't understand." Harry replied.

"Pretending that nothing's happening when it is. I guess it's just what you tend to do isn't it when you don't know what to do and you're scared?"

"It's the best remedy for it. If you dwell on it it's bound to come back with avengeance."

"But it's going to come back either way? I mean, him. Harry, my dear boy. Why?"

"I don't know…"

"It's not fair though is it? After everything that happened. He's back and there's nothing we can do. After all that you did." Mrs Weasley's face was drenched in dribbling tears as she continued to speak.

"I know, I did everything I possibly could and what for, hey? Nothing. This is my reward…" Harry was in a similar state, dishevelled and wet in the eyes.

"You're so brave, Harry…so, so brave…you're mother and father, they'd be so proud…I'm so proud, Harry. You're the son I never had…"

"And you're the mum, I never had…" Harry extended his hand towards Mrs Weasley who took it and pulled him forward for a teary hug as Ginny waltzed down the staircase and into the kitchen causing Harry and Mrs Weasley to part and wipe away their tears to see what Ginny had brought down with her.

In her left hand rested an old pair of Mr Weasley's horn-rimmed spectacles which were an identical size and colour match to Harry's. Ginny took out her wand and cleverly detached one of the arms before rushing over to Harry's broken pair and placing the loose arm beside it. Then with a flick of her wand; "Reparo!" the arm was magnetised to the broken side and sealed itself there as the cracked glass of Harry's lense disappeared and he was left with a pair of undamaged and genuinely clean glasses. Harry immediately jammed the glasses onto his nose and quickly adjusted to having his sight back by turning to survey the garden from the kitchen window. He walked towards it and sighed as he saw Neville, Luna and Mr Weasley firing up multi-coloured bursts of light in interweaving patterns across the sky that Harry saw dissolve into a transparent bubble that was erected all the way around the garden and over the house.

"What happens next?" he wondered.

Ginny walked to him and took his hand into hers and they shared a stare of shared worry before looking back out into the world that they didn't know how had been affected by the return of Lord Voldemort.


	25. Nightfall

Unconscious, head against the bark of a tree and body lay in the dirt was the body of Lord Voldemort, who weak from his return to life had collapsed after trying to attack Harry. Dark had now fallen and Boxing Day had passed into the dead of night which Draco and Onya tried to surpass awake and warm by being sat against a fire they had made in the middle of the clearing. Voldemort then shunted in his slumber and awoke causing Onya to jump, Draco settled her with a reassuring but relatively weak smile as he stood up and trudged over to the newly awaken Voldemort. Voldemort sat up and shuffled so that his back rested against the tree and he sighed heavily as he spotted Draco near him. Draco took a seat on one of the larger roots of the tree and turned to face Voldemort's whose face was only half-illuminated by the dim light of the crackling fire.

"Draco…?" Voldemort croaked, his voice cold-high voice hoarse.

"My Lord…" Draco gave a mediocre bow from where he sat, his hatred and fear of the man who sat before him made him repulsed as he issued the words.

"I don't understand…I'm dead…was dead…Potter killed me, all of me…how can this be?"

"It's a long story…" Draco then launched into retelling how McKinnon found his way out of prison and he had met him and how they Imperiused Fudge and made him Minister for Magic. Draco also explained how McKinnon had found out about Harry had survived, through the Hallows, and that he Voldemort didn't stand a chance. Draco then went onto talking about how they discovered about the exploitation of the Hallows before lying; "…The plan was always to resurrect you, my lord, and to reinstate you as our master. But, McKinnon had different ideas about that. He said he'd make you his servant, his slave and that you'd have to render to his every need. And that he'd kill Potter, not you. So, I betrayed him."

"Is this the truth, Draco, that you tell me? That my loyal McKinnon who I have valued and trusted more than any, who until this very point believed was in to resurrect me to be his Lord had disloyal intentions! Lord Voldemort his servant?! Pity the stupidity of the naïve, Draco, if this is correct then it was your obvious choice to betray him. How could you not?" Draco's plan had managed to work, he wanted Voldemort to consider McKinnon inferior and a traitor and the plan was working. From a distance he saw Onya in the light of the fire giving him a smile of confidence and reassurance.

"As part of my betrayal to the unfaithful servant McKinnon I decided it best to join forces with my friend Onya Lewis," Draco continued as Voldemort glanced over his shoulder and took a glimpse of Onya who immediately recoiled at the sight of Voldemort's gleaming red eyes, "McKinnon was going to break out the Death Eaters from their planned executions but I knew he wouldn't manage it even before betraying him. There was only me, him and Gregory Goyle…so separated from them I knocked them unconscious when the day came and got every piece of information out of McKinnon that I could. With her followers, me and Onya broke out your followers but I had to play along. They did not want to be apart of Onya's following and so I had to leave her with them. They wanted to go under McKinnon's rule and agreed with his terms and began to idolise him over you." The lies for Draco became easier to produce as he continued retelling the story.

"Eventually I had the courage to split from their camp and meet with Onya and together we went to Hogwarts knowing that the Resurrection Stone we needed was there. In the process of getting it we killed nearly all the volunteers there before getting the documents on how to resurrect…we realised we needed the wand and could only get it today. The day the families of those we killed returned to Hogwarts to pay their respects and Potter was there and he followed me. Thing is by using the Stone and the Wand against the will of the owner of the Hallows whose blood you also take can be used to bring back any life for one more chance. Potter following me sped up things and we managed to bring you back, my lord." Draco gave another quick bow and gritted his teeth, trying to prevent any heavy breathes that had been produced fretting over being sussed as a liar.

Voldemort gave him a piercing look of amazement mixed with anger as he took a long inhale and revolved his white spidery hands around his wrist.

"You said the Death Eaters you'd broken out took to following McKinnon? Then what of your parents? Weren't they arrested? Why would they leave you or the other way round…?"

"My mother wasn't originally arrested but was with me and Goyle for a while until we had our disagreements and separated. That's when I was falsely led to believe McKinnon was the right direction…" Draco hurried, his voice cracked, "She was sent to Azkaban for burning down half of Hogsmeade in order to kill Potter, trying to find me…she was never sentenced to execution like the others. She's still locked up."

"It appears your mother has changed her attitudes for the better since the end of the war?" Voldemort seemed impressed with what Narcissa had done, for the first time he was generally beginning to appreciate aspects of the Malfoy family tree. In his head the faults he had with the family began to drift away and brilliant, new things about them began to form in his head.

"I guess so…" Draco nodded.

"And what of your father? Where is he, Draco?"

Draco felt something sting the back of his eyes as he spoke in a throaty tone, his chest ached dully as he spoke; "Dead."

Voldemort convulsed with shock; "What do you mean 'dead'? How can he be dead?!"

"He was captured and sent to Azkaban. He was up for execution and we broke him out but there were Ministry officials everywhere…he was weak, tired and had not practised in the arts for such a time…he didn't stand a chance," Draco gulped, he felt cold and clammy, his heart seemed to knock slowly against his ribs, "Kingsley Shacklebolt, whether or not it was accidental, killed my father…he's dead…"

Voldemort seemed exempt from emotion as he muttered; "I'd give my condolences Draco but he won't be dead for very long if everything goes to plan will he?"

"No." Draco murmured.

Voldemort shuffled where he sat, "This Onya you speak of? Am I right in assuming she's the girl in vicinity of us? The one who gave me the cloak?"

Draco's vision flickered towards Onya who sat beside the flames; "Yes. That's her."

"Who is she, Draco?"

"She's my friend."

"Yet, us Death Eaters don't tend acquire acquaintances?" Voldemort seemed suspicious of Onya.

"No, but she is an exception. She is my friend, my lord. I wish for you to accept her."

"Wish to accept her?" Voldemort snapped, "I don't think I quite understand. Are you meaning to say there is something wrong with this girl?"

"Don't just judge her on what you'll know. She deserves no harm."

Voldemort's white skin crinkled at his forehead, "Explain yourself, Draco."

"She's a half-blood…"

"THEN WHY IS SHE HERE?! Why haven't you killed her?!"

There was an eerie silence as Voldemort's erratic comment echoed around them.

"Aren't you a half-blood though my lord?"

Voldemort gave him a piercing look with his red eyes before stuttering; "And I am more than ashamed…this world should only contain that of what is pure! The Muggle filth will be purged from the world!"

"The thing is she was a Ravenclaw at Hogwarts but she always felt like she was in the wrong House, she felt like a Slytherin and at heart she is. More than anything. You wouldn't even be here, my Lord, if it had not been for her input. She more or less developed the whole plan and has fought her way to get to this point. The number she has killed is unbelievable, most blood-traitors, some Mudbloods and some half-blood! She is more than worthy of becoming one of the cult, my Lord." Draco gave another hasty bow which cricked his neck as he gritted his teeth at the blasphemy.

"You're friendship is more than strong? You rely on her, trust her and believe in her," Voldemort sighed, "Is your relationship with this Onya more than it appears?"

Draco gulped and have a swift look at Onya who had head what had been said and shifted towards the fire a little as Draco lied; "No…my Lord."

"Excellent. We don't want any…cross-breeding…" Onya stared at her feet, Draco felt a little hot under the collar and shakily nodded his head at Voldemort's words as the latter rose from the tree stump.

"I am forever in your debt it appears," Voldemort inclined his head towards Draco who gave Voldemort a perplexed look, "You have given me another chance at this life. It does not matter to me how it works but I am thankful for it and in return I give to you whatever you desire?"

Draco stood to, "I want the Hallows."

Voldemort produced a cold chuckle, "My dear boy, what's this nonsense? You have the Hallows? Are you mad?"

"I only wish to have access to the Hallows for resurrection purposes only where after you may kill Potter and take them for yourself. I think the Hallows will be familiarised with myself after bringing you back. They may work better in my hands."

"That is…acceptable. I understand I cannot use any of the Hallows in due course as Potter must own them? Otherwise we can bring any of the others back? But you can confirm I kill the boy with the wand?"

"Yes…"

"Splendid, dearest Draco you are such a loyal, trustworthy follower. You've grown so much in my absence. And for that you and you're little friend can be my seconds in command. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Draco nodded.

"And what now? The Ministry are bound to be searching for us? Potter would of squealed like a pathetic pig already…" Voldemort spat in hatred.

"We go from here to another place and to another and so on but we mustn't leave the country. But we must keep active and running, any stops and we'll be caught, hung, drawn and quartered. We need time to plan what we're going to do too."

"We must go then, immediately! Tell me everything when we move!"

Jeremiah McKinnon hadn't slept for six days as he sat with his head in his hands behind the desk at the back of his tent. Alone he listened to the hustle and bustle of his fellow Death Eaters walking and talking as they passed his tent in discussion, practising their duelling skills or just gossiping in general. In had been six days since the news came through about Draco and Onya breaking into Hogwarts and slaughtering the volunteering staff. As soon as word had got to McKinnon he ordered a team of the Death Eaters to find them both and bring them back alive. Draco knew about the Hallows, where they were and what he could do with them and after months of suspicious movement and that blank spot in his memories McKinnon suspected Draco knew where the plans for the Hallows' exploitation were. Paranoid and generally worried he marched around the camp in Prestatyn firing curses and profanity as the Death Eaters failed to find any trace of the teenagers. He had been suspicious of Draco's actions on the day he left and he had no trust in the boy and regretted ever sharing any information. It was now another day of anticipation where McKinnon sat behind his desk and stared at the tent canvas, clueless of his next move or where Draco and Onya could be. Then, all of a sudden, Yaxley burst into the tent with a panic-stricken expression and rushed towards McKinnon who shot up alarmed.

"Yaxley, what's wrong?!" he exclaimed.

Yaxley then yelped quickly, "He's back McKinnon! He's back!"

"You're not making sense you idiot!" McKinnon snapped.

"The Dark Lord! He has returned! Malfoy and Lewis have resurrected him!" Yaxley spluttered breathlessly, "The Potter boy saw it all with his own eyes! It happened during the memorial service, Potter showed everyone there his memory of what happened! It's fact, our Lord is back!"

McKinnon crashed back into his chair a blank expression, his mouth agape, "He's back…? The Dark Lord…?"

Yaxley nodded trying to regain his breath as McKinnon heard cries of delight and cheering from the camp.

"What do we do? If he's been brought back by Malfoy and Lewis then he might be deceived and become part of their league. Then we don't stand a chance…if they have other intentions…"

McKinnon rocketed up from his seat, "GET OUT THERE AND FIND THEM! NOW! GO! I DON'T CARE IF YOU BRING THEM BACK DEAD OR ALIVE! LIE TO THE DARK LORD OR WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO! GET HIM BACK ON OUR SIDE AND GET THEM PUNISHED FOR THEIR TREACHERY!" screamed McKinnon at Yaxley who gave a quick nod before turning on the spot and rushing back out of the tent to start shouting out orders to the other Death Eaters. McKinnon then followed quickly and ripped open the canvas to face the crowd of Onya's ex-followers and the remaining Death Eaters who fell silent when McKinnon entered. Yaxley faltered his screams and turned to McKinnon who shoved him aside.

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!" McKinnon spat angrily, kicking up a clump of leaves and dirt, "You lot are supposed to be the Dark Lord's best followers and yet you are unable to find two teenagers! Pathetic! All of you, useless! The Dark Lord is back and those traitors will be trying to deceive him and you must get there before it's too late! If you fail and the Dark Lord comes after us I will personally kill every last one of you myself! Is that clear?!" there were some disgruntled agreements from the majority of the Death Eaters excluding one gangly follower who decided to bellow something back.

"Why should we listen to you?! You got yourself into prison?! Who's to say the Dark Lord wants anything to do with you?! You're just as useless as the rest of us! Just as pathetic! Just as…!"

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" McKinnon had drawn his wand and swung it at the follower who was hit squarely in the face with a beam of green light and crashed into the earth, dead.

The Death Eaters took a glance at the crippled form of the disobedient follower with horrified expressions.

"DOES ANYBODY ELSE WANT TO TRY MY PATIENCE?! ANYBODY ELSE WANT TO DEFY ME?!" McKinnon's bellow echoed around the campsite, the Death Eaters shifted uncomfortably.

"McKinnon you can't deny you haven't lost your mind with this?" It was Fenrir Greyback who looked shabby and pale as he stepped forward amongst the crowd, "We can only do our best but we can try harder. I personally will devote myself to finding the Dark Lord and if you don't mind…I'd like to kill Malfoy myself. Always knew the boy wouldn't amount to anything. I'm awfully hungry…" he licked his lips, just showing his razor-sharp fangs.

McKinnon breathed sluggishly and spoke serenely, "I haven't lost my mind just yet, Fenrir. However, you can lead this operation, Yaxley you're fired, and I'll let you rip the bastard apart," the last comment made Greyback chuckle slightly as he slavered a little, "Now, Fenrir team this lot up and spread out! Scour the country, look everywhere, read every paper, interrogate every Ministry worker, do whatever you must do but find the Dark Lord and kill Draco Malfoy and Onya Lewis!"

Nightfall. Everyone was drifting off one by one to go to bed and sleep off the fear and dread of the day that had passed. Harry sat gazing into the dim flames of the fireplace as Mrs Weasley got up from her husband's armchair and trudged up the spiral staircase to bed. Left in the dark living room was Harry, Ginny, Neville and Luna who took up the spaces of the sofas and they all sat in silence, the soundtrack of death stuck on loop.

Ginny rubbed Harry's arm gently, "Harry?"

"Yeah…" he replied still staring into the fire.

"What're you thinking?"

"Nothing…"

"That nothing's usually a something with you."

"This time it's a nothing, believe me…I don't know what to think."

There was a tapping on the glass of the window in the room, there was an owl there with a lone piece of parchment hanging in its beak. Luna swiftly opened up the lock on the window with her wand to allow the owl to swoop in and drop the letter before flying back out, the window snapped shut behind it. The letter had landed on Neville's lap, he decided to pick it up and read it in his head. The appearance of the owl had caught Harry's attention so he turned to face Neville who lifted his head back up from reading the parchment with eyes that were glassy with what looked like tears, he folded the parchment and slotted it into his pyjama pocket.

"Neville?" Luna asked him gently.

Neville turned to face her, tears now streaming from his eyes as he said in a cracked voice, "She's dead."

"Who…?" Luna sighed sadly.

"My grandmother…" Neville choked before crumbling into a fit of tears that saw him drop his head into his hands, Luna shot up and embraced him tightly. Ginny turned to face Harry with a mixed look of guilt and upset as Harry lowered his head and stared at his knees.

_'Neville's grandmother? Mrs Longbottom? The owner of that vulture shaped hat…that red handbag…was she dead? Was she really dead? Another person, dead? Another person to the long and growing list of the dead…had it been natural? Or had she been murdered? Was it Neville's connection with Harry that had caused it…?' _Harry thought, a million and one thoughts rushing around his head. The paranoia, the guilt, the dread and the truth smashed into one, whirling around in a dark cloud inside Harry's head. He didn't want to think about such things but he couldn't help but do so.

"Neville…" Ginny murmured sympathetically so that Neville lifted up his tear-stained, red face, Luna's arm still wrapped around his back tightly, "How did she…? Was she…? Who sent the letter?"

Harry continued to stare at his knees, his brain buzzing with pessimistic images as Neville emitted with a hoarse voice, "H-H-Hannah…she wasn't k-k-killed…Hannah was w-with her when s-s-she…" Neville sniffed and choked a little before continuing his stuttering, "She…she had Scrofungulus…"

Luna's neck cricked at the speed she jumped at the mention of the illness that Harry had no idea about. Ginny seemed bemused and sickened as she said, "Scrofungulus? Are you sure, Neville?" He nodded.

"Isn't that just a bug, though?" Luna quizzed both Neville and Ginny.

Harry lost his train of cynical thinking when he became intrigued what the girls and Neville were discussing so he decided to question what Scrofungulus was, "What's Scrofungulus?"

Ginny's eyes darted to Harry as he spoke, Luna and Neville looked towards his direction too.

"It's a contagious disease provoked by some Magical Bug. Caused by some kind of fungus. It attacks the neck, I think…it's kind of like Muggle T.B.?"

_Tuberculosis? _Harry had studied such diseases back in his last year at his Muggle primary school and had learnt about Tuberculosis briefly. In normal terms it was generally lethal but in the magical world…?

"Tuberculosis is deadly…why do you talk about it like it's nothing?" Harry examined.

"In the magical world it is nothing," Ginny explained, "Not really. It's usually just like a flu because we can treat it easily if it deteriorates. Neville, how's your grandmother died of it?"

"Hannah said her b-b-body had just p-packed out…while she was sleeping…no p-p-pain…her body couldn't t-t-t-take it anymore…I g-guess it's b-b-better than anything…" Neville broke down back into tears and quivered as he hunched over with Luna rubbing his back soothingly. Ginny took a glimpse at Neville before turning to Harry and inclining her head so that they both stood up from their seats. Before they exited the room to the garden both Harry and Ginny shared hugs with Neville. Ginny squeezed him tightly and pecked him on the cheek whereas Harry seized him tightly and said; "Be strong now, Neville…yeah?"

Neville mumbled an agreement as Harry let go of him and followed Ginny out into the garden.

In the garden Harry and Ginny stared up at the night sky and took one another's hands before exchanging sad smiles.

"It's just going to get worse isn't it?" Harry sighed.

"You can't be sure about that can you?" Ginny replied simply.

"Not really but it's bound to isn't it?"

"I'd rather not make a judgement…I'd rather just admire the night sky if that's alright?"

"Why wouldn't it?"

"Is every response of yours going to be a question, Harry?"

Harry gave a dry, weak laugh, "Can't say much can you?"

Ginny replied with a mild giggle too, "You make me laugh you do Potter."

"Feels wrong though, doesn't it?"

"It's best to look on the bright side though…"

"I'd like to…"

"If you keep yourself in the darkness you will become the darkness."

Harry released Ginny's hand and turned to her in order for a cuddle, "I don't deserve you."

"Don't start that, again." Ginny flicked his nose with her index finger.

"I love you…I always have loved you…I do love you and I always will love you. Till the day I die."

"Let's hope that day isn't soon then! Because I love you too much and so much that it hurts. No-one can get in our way, agreed?"

"Agreed, Weasley."

"Now, get inside Potter."

Harry and Ginny turned to enter the house and as they walked through the hallway they heard the clunk of a trunk, shuffling of clothing and personal items. As they entered the living room they found Neville sealing up his trunk full of everything he brought with him to the Burrow. Luna stood by his side with a tear or two dribbling down her pale, pallid face.

"You going somewhere, Neville?" Harry asked him quietly.

"Yeah…better get off home…gotta see Hannah…sort out the arrangements for…you know…" Neville finished zipping up his case and gave them all a shaky nod and smile as he pulled the trunk up onto its feet.

"Aren't you going to wait till the morning? So everyone can say goodbye?" Ginny pondered.

"Better not waste time…I'm sorry…" Neville dismissed.

"No, Neville. We're sorry." Luna apologised.

With an agreement of silence the four traipsed out of the back door and into the garden where Luna, Harry and Ginny waved Neville off who exited the gate and Disapparated promptly with his trunk in hand into the night…

The next morning the Wizarding World was in meltdown with the publicised return of Voldemort. The Ministry of Magic officially released a statement to the press detailing what had happened and what they were doing about it. By the small hours of the morning in Britain the entire Wizarding population knew of Voldemort's resurrection and now locked themselves away in their homes in sheer fear. With every house-hold ordered to put up their own defensive enchantments the Ministry also developed incredibly strict controls on who the let in and out of the Ministry itself. The Muggles now saw their airports shut off though wizards were taken up in airplanes to construct complex defensive structures around the borders. The Auror office only saw a few Aurors within the Ministry whereas the majority scoured every part of the country for any sign of any Death Eater. Overnight the office arrested twenty three wizards on suspicion of the Dark Arts but no significant activity had taken place on the Death Eaters' behalf. Apart from the intensive security measures being placed on nearly every country in the world everything was silent. There were no riots or uprisings from any groups of wizards and witches, nothing happened at all…It was awfully quiet…At the Burrow Harry had been wide awake all through the night as he sat on a stool in the Burrows' kitchen surveying the garden. Behind him in the living room lay a silently sleeping Ginny who had fallen asleep begging Harry to go to bed. For most of the night Harry had found himself staring at her as she slept until he had turned to the shrubbery, gnomes and chickens of the dilapidated Weasley garden. As the blood-red sun began to rise from behind the hills in the distance, above the fog and the clouds, light illuminated the previously shaded grassy area. Harry prolonged a heavy exhale as he heard movement behind him. After a yawn and a noisy stretch Harry found Ginny's arm draped around him within a matter of seconds. He took her hand and pressed his lips against her soft skin.

"What're we doing today?" she asked him.

"Hiding?" Harry breathed.

_POP!_

Harry and Ginny whirled around on the spot to see none other than Ron Apparate into the kitchen for them to exclaim his name in high-pitched shock; "RON!" they chorused.

When he adjusted to his new surroundings he lifted up his head and gave them both a weak smile before the trio joined in a group hug, "Hello you two!" Ron exclaimed.

After the trio separated from one another their temporary happy expressions dissolved into ones that were rather on the sombre side.

"Ron, what're you doing here?" Ginny quizzed him.

"Percy just Apparated into the house in Australia and told us everything. Hermione said it was best I came over straight away."

"How is she? Hermione? And her parents?" the tone of Harry's voice hinted that he was genuinely worried.

"They're all fine. Obviously worried about you lot and paranoid too. I think Hermione's just pretending she isn't scared but she is…I can tell." Ron explained.

"Good to hear she's okay…Neville, Charlie, Bill and Fleur have all left now by the way. The house feels smaller…" Harry sighed.

"There's more of those Aurors hanging around the border of the house now. Grabbleforn popped up to speak to them just before Percy came along. He was frantic, all over the place…" Ron recalled, "So, it's true is it? You saw…him?"

Ginny gave Harry a look as he nodded silently, "Draco and Onya brought him back, I saw it when I followed Draco after spotting him at the memorial service." Harry murmured.

"But how? How is he back? I don't understand…we destroyed all the Horcruxes didn't we? There's no magic that can bring back the dead can it? Not if he died without a soul, surely? It's just improbable, completely…you killed yourself to stop him, Harry! After all that fighting, that sacrifice and death he just comes back…?!"

Harry cut Ron part way through his frenzied rant and began to explain at speed everything in detail that had happened. Though he felt sickly and nauseous reminding himself of the events that happened in the clearing Harry told Ron everything from the fight in the Disapparition field, to the blood, the Stone and the Wand, the falling dead birds, the earthquake, the light and the breeze and finally how Voldemort's naked body formed from the dust and went to kill him.

After Harry completed retelling what he saw Ron collapsed onto a chair next to the kitchen table, a blank expression on his sheet-white face.

"He's really back, isn't he?" Ron exhaled monotonously.

"Harry showed it to everybody at the service…his memory, I mean. Using the Pensieve? It was…horrific…" Ginny informed her brother.

"It probably was, yeah…so what do we do?" Ron enquired.

"What do we do? Why do we have to do anything?" Ginny snapped.

"Because he's our responsibility…all of them are, actually…" stated Harry.

Ginny and Ron gave Harry wild looks, Ron ejaculated; "You want to risk your life trying to do a job the Ministry could do?!"

"I've done it time and time again and beat him every time!" Harry cried, "Wasn't me that survived the Killing Curse twice? Wasn't it us that broke into the Ministry of Magic twice? Wasn't it us that travelled the country for a year and destroyed pieces of his soul?! We won't back down! We will kill him no matter what it takes…!"

_POP! _ Kingsley Shacklebolt Apparated directly beside Ron's chair making him jump with shock. Harry's mouth hung agape in mid-speech as Ginny leant back on the work surface with her eyebrows raised.

"Harry, Ron, Ginny…" he boomed in his deep voice.

"Kingsley?! What's wrong?!" Ginny squealed.

"Nothing, nothing…the Aurors are all out on search for anyone linked to the Death Eaters and You Know Who. The entire Ministry is on red-alert and the Muggle Prime Minister called for an emergency conference between the main world leaders. All the airports are closing down, immigration controls are working in overdrive…Ron I heard the Grangers are safe, yes?" Kingsley rushed.

"Yeah, yeah. Hermione made me come back over here to see what the hell was going on," Ron muttered, "Kingsley is there no clue to where any of them are?"

"No, nothing, not a single clue…it's like they've disappeared completely. We're searching everywhere and always, but we're getting nothing out of it. Harry we do need your help in our investigation." Kingsley gave Harry a sincere look.

"Go ahead, it's kinda my job after all…" Harry shrugged.

"Where did you go when followed Malfoy? Did you recognise it? Describe it to me."

"It was a large clearing with big trees around it. It could have been anywhere but a clue is that the trees will be stripped bare, leaves everywhere, cracks in the grass and lots of dead birds on the ground. It kind of felt like it was high up, the air felt a little restricted so it might have been a forest at a high altitude maybe. Possibly up north? Scotland maybe? Not sure, I'm sorry Kinglsey."

"I'll get straight on to it, Harry! Thank you!" Kingsley went to turn back on heel and Disapparate when he issued, "Make sure you're security's bumped up even more! I shouldn't be able to Apparate in here next time, do you hear me? Now, say hello to the others, goodbye!"

"Bye, Kingsley!" Ron, Harry and Ginny chorused as the Minister for Magic swung on his heel and dissolved into atmosphere within a second.

"Now, what do we do?" Ron questioned rhetorically to the response of shrugs on Harry and Ginny's behalf.

Behind the bottom of a waterfall within a cavern overlooking a high drop sat a blackened pile of smoking ash and next to it a few bags and a bundle of blankets. Stood on the edge of the cavern in the morning light that shone through the water of the continuing fall was Draco. Behind him came Voldemort whose presence Draco detected by the shuffle of his footsteps against the crumbling stone.

"Draco?" Voldemort tapped Draco gingerly on the shoulder with a long, white finger.

"Yes, my Lord?" Draco enquired with gritted teeth without shifting his sight towards the wizard.

"Where is Yvonnya?"

"Who?"

"That is her name isn't it?"

"Full name, yeah. She hates it though. Just call her Onya."

"Certainly…so…?"

Draco shuddered before mumbling, "Local Muggle shop to see what's being fed to them."

"Ah, I see," Voldemort took another step forward so that he was level with Draco on the edge of the cliff face, "Are we ready to resurrect the others this dawn?"

"I guess so…"

"And then what? The Muggles, the Ministry or the traitors? Which do you chose?" Voldemort's high, cold voice ordered of Draco's decision.

"I'll decide when we get to that point." Voldemort gave Draco a defiant look as the latter said this.

"You're not exactly organised for this are you Draco?"

Draco ignored him as they both turned at the sound of Onya turning the corner of the cavern opening and near them with a sombre expression.

"What' happening?" she quizzed them both.

"We're resurrecting my loyal subjects! Now go and retrieve the Stone, the Wand and the blood girl!" Voldemort cried.

Onya simply gazed at him, "I'm not frightened of you. You aren't as powerful as you were. In terms of hierarchy nor magic. You cannot possibly order me around however you like it."

Voldemort gave her piercing stare and clenched a pale fist, "Remarkable," Draco released a heavy breath as Voldemort said this, "You dared to stand against my authority? You have proved yourself more than worthy in my eyes miss Lewis."

She duly nodded and trudged within the cavern and retrieved the vial of Harry's blood, the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone and made her way towards Draco and Voldemort. They met in the centre of the extended cavern floor as Onya turned the Stone thrice before placing it on top of grey rock and uncorked the vial before releasing half of the contents onto the Stone. With more blood than beforehand the white steam it generated was in vast volume and began to consume the entire clearing. Draco gestured for Voldemort to take a step back as Onya lifted up the Elder Wand with the incantation remembered within her head. Then the Stone began to emit a ghostly glow and the rocky surface began to shake slightly, several cracks began to form. Onya turned to the other two for their confirmation and in return they nodded so she gave a preluding cough before murmuring the incantation;

"With the blood of the Master of Death drawn in revenge, his Hallows forcibly taken I speak to thee as the conqueror of the owner of the invincible items. As I have turned the Stone of Resurrection and casted with the Wand of Elder, I request the return to life of my beloved; Lucius Malfoy, Amycus Carrow, Bellatrix Lestrange, Goyle Sr, Travers, Wilkes, Thorfinn Rowle, Evan Rosier, Rabastan Lestrange, Jugson, Gibbon, Alecto Carrow and Augustus Rookwood., to continue their existences from whence they left it until the day they die once more and for eternity."

The shaking of the ground escalated ten-fold and a vigorous mini-earthquake rattled the rocky surface flinging all three of them to their knees in winces of pain. The Stone then flew up spontaneously and its ghostly white light which shone through it burst open and expanded to illuminate the entire cavern. The Stone's single linear crack then opened and released a gigantic, a tornado like blast of cold air which developed into a continuous wind which rippled the skin on Onya, Draco and Voldemort's bones. The shaking grew worse as the Stone flipped so that its vacuum of air shifted towards the ground. With that air quantities of water then shot from the running waterfall in a spray which saw the moisture grow and turn into bullets of ice. These icicles and snowballs were then launched through a fury of showering rain to hit the wizards and witch but deflect off the Stone and crash into the cracking rocky surface. All heat had been consumed in the vacuum which had forced a crater in the rock causing a bowl of dust to be ejected outwards. As several dead fish swept towards the Stone with a flurry of falling, black leaves from nearby trees, the dust began to swirl. Thicker and thicker, faster and faster, higher and higher. The large ring of dust split into multiple, smaller rings which began to rise and make solidified shapes. From feet to knees and from legs to torsos, finally heads were formed. The Stone closed and gently drifted back to the rock with a clatter as the vacuum of wind, the light, the rain and the quake ceased. As the three lifted their heads out emerged from the bright light; thirteen naked Death Eaters.

The Death Eaters flicked open their eyes and took in breathes as they adjusted to their surroundings and twirled around trying to comprehend what on earth was happening to them. Voldemort seized the opportunity by standing back up onto his two feet and announced broadly; "Brothers…sisters…We are reunited at last!"

The Death Eaters turned with bewildering looks towards Voldemort and then Draco and Onya who also got to their feet and stood side-by-side with Voldemort.

"Welcome back to the realm of the living! Myself, Draco and Onya have risked everything to bring you all back and now it is time to return that favour once I explain what is going on here. But first, Lucius?"

From the crowd of naked bodies Lucius Malfoy emerged with a blank expression which soon changed to that of terror as he spotted Voldemort standing before him. However, Draco then took a step to the left in order to lock eyes with his dead father. After moments of shared staring at one another the father and son failed to muster any words at all. In the meantime Onya decided to enter the cavern and take from it a pile of identical black robes which she threw towards the bewildered group of newly resurrected Death Eaters. They immediately began to clothe themselves which is when Lucius then decided to move forward towards his son and they joined in a tight embrace, both filled with tears in their eyes. Onya looked upon them until she noticed none other than Bellatrix Lestrange emerge from the squabbling, scrabbling crowd of Death Eaters. Now clothed in black robes Bellatrix with rolling eyes made her way towards Voldemort who failed to notice her. Bellatrix coughed to gain the wizard's attention so that he turned on his heel to face her.

"My Lord…?" Bellatrix gasped with wide eyes, in awe of her master.

"Bellatrix. I find myself satisfied with your recurrence." Voldemort stated authoritatively.

Bellatrix gave a little courtesy before continuing, "How…do we exist, my Lord? What dark magic brings us here? What is my nephew's involvement? Who is the girl? Please…my Lord, explain!"

Voldemort then bellowed; "DEATH EATERS! Your attention!" Draco and his father split their hug and wiped their tears as Bellatrix stepped back into the huddle of still bemused Death Eaters. From that point Voldemort briefly explained how they had all been resurrected, he did this without mentioning the Hallows. When he was finished he looked towards his followers and said, "Now, onwards!"

Jeremiah McKinnon deftly kicked aside the corpse of the elderly wizard he had just murdered in cold blood so that he could continue his walk over the hill-top. That morning McKinnon had found himself on one side of the volcanic plug Slemish in Antrim, Northern Ireland. During the previous night where he didn't sleep, McKinnon got word that a particular Dermot Illgurnoch had relevant information to the whereabouts of Voldemort, Draco and Onya. Though when McKinnon met the apparently Imperiused wizard, he decided the man had wasted his time and decided to kill him for it. Now McKinnon continued to pace up the side of the mountain alone and was lost in his own ponderings as he trudged through the crunchy, frost filled grass, trying to avoid the puddles of black mud. The rest of his Death Eaters had scattered themselves across the British Isles in order to find any sign of Draco, Onya and Voldemort without being detected by any of the Ministry. It had been a long night and they had found nothing and McKinnon wasn't aware that it would be some time before the Death Eaters took out their revenge and reclaimed their loyalty to their master. The main thing that McKinnon was worried about was what Draco and Onya had done with the Stone now after they had resurrected Voldemort. They had brought him back so what was stopping them from bringing back any of the other dead Death Eaters such as Lucius Malfoy or Bellatrix Lestrange? Whatever was happening, wherever they were, McKinnon was trying his best to maintain his calm though every waking second he was paranoid and worried of what would happen next. Would it be the Ministry or Lord Voldemort who would get to him first? He had no idea. However, whatever would happen McKinnon was ready to kill anyone who got in his way and would stop at nothing to survive.

"Jeremiah?"

McKinnon span on his heel and spat up a smattering of snow when he turned to face a newly Apparated Yaxley who stood afore him with a grey cloak, his face gaunt and his hair lank.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" McKinnon blurted out.

"I've completed my scouring of Kilmarnock, found nothing, thought I'd come to see how you were doing." Yaxley replied.

"Inefficiently…"

"I can tell." Yaxley inclined to the dilapidated corpse of Illgurnoch.

"He didn't have any information. Waste of my bloody time." McKinnon adjusted his cloak as Yaxley raised his eyebrows.

"What's the next move then? What do you think Malfoy, Lewis and the Dark Lord are doing?"

"No idea…could be anything…"

"You know more than you're saying, Jeremiah. Don't you? I can tell."

McKinnon flashed him a wide-eyed piercing look, "Excuse me?"

"You're so paranoid about this entire thing. What's your problem? Do you know how the Dark Lord is back? Well…? Do you?!" Yaxley became a little agitated in his tone.

"What if I do? What the hell has it got to do with you, Yaxley?!"

"We work together, do we not? We are Death Eaters! We share all information!"

"Maybe the information I hold is on a need-to-know basis. You're an inferior worm to me Yaxley."

"_Inferior?!" _Yaxley spluttered, "What gives you the right to accuse me, McKinnon?! It's not like you're perfect is it? It's not like you abandoned the cult, went off and tried to do your own thing! Disloyal and pathetic as you always will be, McKinnon!"

McKinnon rushed forwards and seized Yaxley by the throat, "Disloyal and pathetic?! Says the wizard who found himself locked away in Azkaban?! Unable to fend for himself, the rat Yaxley who licks the boots of anyone with power!" McKinnon slid out a small, sharp silver dagger from his cloak sleeve.

"Jeremiah McKinnon always resorting to violence to solve his problems, never able to control his anger! Why don't you gain some self-control and be logical once in a while! Now is the time to make up for your disobedience and blood treachery!"

McKinnon, with the scruff of the neck, dragged Yaxley to the edge of the hill top with the dagger still enclosed within his free hand.

"YOU FOLLOW MY ORDERS! AND YOU NEVER SPEAK OF MY BLOOD EVER AGAIN!" McKinnon bellowed into Yaxley's face.

"WHY SHOULD I?! You aren't a true Death Eater, McKinnon! You don't even have pure-blood!" Yaxley retorted.

McKinnon then released Yaxley's throat and pummelled the dagger into his chest with which he was able to push Yaxley's body off the hill top to clatter into a ball and roll down the hillside. As Yaxley rolled down with blood being fired in multiple directions at high pressure staining the snow covered grass with crimson droplets. As Yaxley's limp corpse toppled over a rock and landed like a rag doll at the bottom of the hill at a country roadside, McKinnon issued a loud cackle of insanity. Then, without a glimmer of remorse, he swiftly Disapparated from the hillside leaving behind Yaxley's dead body crippled and blood-stained in the road.


	26. The Melancholy of Azkaban

Days passed. Those days then turned into weeks and those weeks turned into months. New Year passed in a flourish, Valentine's Day flew past and the forty days of lent began without recognition. During this three month period nothing of much importance occurred on all fronts. At the Burrow Charlie returned from Romania on the night that both Kingsley and Ron had visited them. Since that day Mr Weasley made daily inspections and updates to the defensive enchantments on the border of the Burrow, assisted by George. Mr Weasley who had been unable to work for the Ministry for over a year now had now officially resigned from his position. George closed down all services connected to the Wizard Wheezes business and Charlie was allowed to stay with them for as long as he needed as he had been granted time off by work. Bill and Fleur had sent a solitary letter which detailed their defensive strategies upon Shell Cottage where they decided was best to stay for the time being. Since then the Burrow had had no contact with them as it had been a mutual agreement. Neville had also sent a letter in which he noted that the date for his grandmother's funeral would be postponed until everything was settled and that also he wasn't to move out of his flat with Hannah. Ron had decided to stay put in the Burrow though he found himself immersed in daily fireside conversations with Hermione and the Grangers via Floo Powder. The fireplace itself wasn't to be connected to any other house apart from the Grangers which was secured in Australia. Hermione and her parents had seen an increase in security around the house and had been talked to by Minister Grabbleforn who assured their safety. Luna, on the weekends, was able to visit her father's grave as often as it was possible. Sleeping arrangements saw her sleep alone in Ginny's room whilst George, Charlie and Ron stayed in George's room. Ginny had managed to persuade her parents to allow her to stay in Ron's room with Harry, in separate beds, in order to look after him, especially during the night. It was now a regular occurrence for Harry during the night to experience the worst of nightmares about Voldemort, the Battle of Hogwarts, McKinnon, Draco, Onya and all that had died for him previously. The majority of nights Harry found himself wide awake in the small hours of the morning screaming and covered in cold sweat and tears. Ginny did all she could to keep him calm but Harry still continued to spasm and shout out waking up half the house.

It was also a regular event for either Kingsley or Percy to Apparate outside the house to be allowed in and start to explain everything that was happening in the Wizarding World which wasn't anything of importance. The Ministry of Magic had half of its staff, Auror or non-Auror, they were interrogating and searching every single corner of the British Isles for any sign of the Death Eaters and Voldemort but failed to find any traces. Of course red herrings were left all over the place with the death count of innocent bystanders (Muggle born or Muggle) rose tremendously. People were dying all over, and not just in Britain but worldwide, and yet the murderers could not even be found. As the death toll rose the world's borders shut off and the Muggles in power passed it off to the public that the government was protecting everyone from a new super virus that could be a potential pandemic. In the Wizarding World fliers on how to protect houses and fight off Inferi and Dementors were sent to every home possible. The printing of the Daily Prophet was also cancelled for the time being so that the Death Eaters could not access any information about anyone or anything. The world was in lockdown, everything was cut off and everything was silent. There were numerous deaths and yet no signs of any Dark Magic anywhere to be seen, whether the Death Eaters were to do anything big was unlikely at that current time.

Now in the middle of March the Burrow's activity was low and the Weasleys, Luna and Harry were carrying out their days as per normal, like nothing was happening. It had just turned seven in the morning on the nineteenth of March 1999 when Harry found himself wrapped within a large blanket with Ginny on of the sofas. On the other was Ron and Luna whilst Mr Weasley occupied one of the armchairs. They had all just finished off their breakfast and were now relaxing whilst admiring the spring sunshine which illuminated the living room through the agape curtains. As Harry sat against the sofa for what felt like the billionth time he saw dozens of horrific images flash by his eyes and the migraine he had developed from continuing paranoia increased in its pain. Then, out of nowhere, dressed in dark purple robes that were musty and hadn't been cleaned for weeks, Percy Weasley, looking badly shaven and tired, Apparated in the living room with heavy breathes.

"PERCY!" they all exclaimed cueing for Mrs Weasley, George and Charlie to burst out of the kitchen pile into the living room. The Weasleys, Luna and Harry were now anxious to know what on earth Percy was doing there.

"Percy, how did you get in here?!" Mr Weasley cried.

"There was a breach in your security! I needed to get to you fast too so…!" Percy ejected quickly.

"What's wrong, Percy? What is it?! Is it him?!" Mrs Weasley demanded of her son.

"No, no…"

"Then what is it, Perce?!" Charlie exclaimed.

"All of you, apart from Luna, need to come with me to Azkaban ASAP!"

The Weasleys, Luna and Harry gave Percy looks of shock and bemusement at his wild suggestion that left Harry to respond with; "Are you mad, Percy?! AZKABAN?! Now?!"

"Yes, you're key witnesses!"

"To what?!" Ron bellowed.

"We're holding an emergency trial at Azkaban to decide the fate of Narcissa Malfoy. You were all there when she burnt down Hogsmeade, so you're the key witnesses! We need your statements!"

"Couldn't you just write them down? Why do we have to go there?!" George speculated.

"No, we need verbal confirmation from you all. The governors of the prison can't take my word as it'd be considered bias…"

"How exactly?" Ginny wondered.

"I was there too but I'm the Minister for Magic, being in that position I've promoted the severest of punishments for any involved in the Dark Arts. They've got to have honest judgement from you."

The Weasleys and Harry looked at one another in a manner that saw them silently confer what was best to do about the current situation whilst Luna shared a fleeting smile with a heavily panting Percy.

"We'll go." Mr Weasley murmured from his armchair with a firm nod to Percy who replied with a nod himself.

"Right, well we need to go now. Yes?" Percy breathed.

The Weasleys then shuffled into the middle of the living room leaving Luna sat on the sofa alone. Harry gestured to Ginny and the pair of them reversed towards Luna in order to exchange hugs.

"See you later." Winked Harry.

"Are you going to be alright on your own, Lune?" Ginny asked her friend.

"I'll be fine. You better get going. Good luck." Luna wished them.

Both Harry and Ginny then returned to the group in the middle of living room where Percy took out an oil can from the depths of his robes and placed it upon the carpet.

"We'll back soon, dear!" Mrs Weasley gestured to Luna who replied with a brief smile.

Percy then took out his wand and with an outstretched arm he chanted, "Portus!" therefore illuminating the can with a blue glow as it shook ever so slightly, rattling as the Weasleys understood the procedure. They therefore took their positions with Percy and placed a finger each on top of the oil can which then suddenly took off. With a fleeting glance at the Burrow living room Harry felt an invisible hook tear him away from where he stood by the naval. As his weightless body was jerked around in circles at a high speed Harry felt air rush around him as he began to feel sickly. Then suddenly his previously glued finger on the can came off and he was flung into the air to crash onto solid, cold concrete. On impact Harry felt his knees buckle and bruise and his jeans split partially on the stone. When he opened up his eyes the fear he hadn't felt before suddenly hit him like a train causing him to topple over when he tried to get to his feet. Harry now felt nauseous and his vision blurred as he adjusted to his new surroundings.

They had landed in one of the many corridors that the Azkaban facility held. Only moments ago Harry was happily relaxing after his breakfast, pretending there wasn't anything to be worried about. Now, he found himself in a badly lit corridor with was dingy with a concrete floor, ceiling and walls. There were no windows in that corridor only a set of reinforced steel doors down the right hand side which were sealed with heavy bolts. At the end of the corridor was a door of plain but scratched oak with a brass handle and a grimy plaque that read; _'Governing Body Emergency Trial Room'_. As Harry took in everything that he saw he felt a soft hand try and pick him back up from where he had fallen down to. He looked up and saw Ginny's comforting face pull him up onto his feet however he collapsed back onto the opposite wall with a lean. The Weasleys were all on their feet and giving Harry bemused looks as the door to the trial room swung open with a bang to reveal a stout witch with curly grey hair and sharp, darting eyes. Her vision swung to Percy as she looked out of the room.

"Minister Weasley, we were just about to start without you…" she said in a monotonous, dry voice.

"Sorry for that Governor Chalbian…could you just give us another minute?" Percy gave Harry a brief glance, Harry was still trying to get together his paranoia and nerves as the governor took an unemotional look at him.

"Hurry up." She stated blandly before hurriedly re-entering the trial room which Harry who had now gained his balance looked into.

Through the open door which the governor had left open Harry was able to see everything in the trial room which appeared to be bigger in the inside than out. There it saw a long table dotted with official looking wizards and witches who were part of the governing body. Facing them was a lone desk where chained to it was none other than Narcissa Malfoy who had previously been admiring the numerous citizens in the jury seated behind her. When she realised there were others in the open corridor she looked and spotted Harry and together they shared an awkward yet intimidating stare. With dark eyes Narcissa, who looked gaunt, paler and thinner with some missing tufts out of her hair, glared at Harry with pure hatred boiling inside her. Harry then began to experience some sort of panic attack as the events of months gone by abruptly washed over him and he began to spasm, sweat and tear up as Narcissa began to smirk. The tension between them was sudden and unbearable and everybody else who surveyed it failed to do anything about it but watch. Moments that felt like hours passed by as Harry's fear build up inside him, a snake desperate to burst out of his skull! Then…

BOOM! BANG! CRASH! CRUNCH! SMASH!

The left hand side of the corridor's wall which Harry had been leaning on while he panicked suddenly exploded with enough force to send gigantic sections of the concrete into the other side. With this abrupt explosion saw the ground shake, a bowl of dust and rubble fly upwards and a massive, noisy gust of wind came with it all. The debris of half of the corridor wall slammed into the opposite wall rupturing the brick work and smashing door some of the cell doors. One large chunk lodged itself in the trial room doorway to cause screeching cries and hysterics from the people within said room. Harry, who had been leaning against the exploded wall, was thrown off his feet to somersault feet over head to collapse onto the now cracked concrete floor. He was showered with smaller debris whereas the Weasleys, who just managed to jump in time to avoid the flying blocks of concrete, had dived to the dust filled floor being caught by several sharp pieces of brick as they collapsed. One lump of concrete knocked Mrs Weasley out unconscious, George had the hole in his head clipped and it began to slowly ooze out blood. All in all the Weasleys including Percy, whose legs were loosely trapped under some bricks, and Harry managed to avoid the majority of the torn apart wall and land with only minor cuts and scrapes. Harry, who had smashed one of the lenses in his glasses and received a long gash down the left side of his face, opened up his eyes. In the dust-filled corridor Harry heard echoes reverberating from the lower and higher levels of the prison which sounded strangulated, screechy and terrified. Harry was also confident that he heard another minor explosions and the sounds of duelling wands as he just heard various objects smash. He then rolled his head to one side and through the thick fog of dust he saw levitating over the deep sea near to the hole in the wall with their wands aloft; Draco and Lucius Malfoy, Onya Lewis, Bellatrix Lestrange, Amycus Carrow, Alecto Carrow and Goyle Senior. With triumphant, gleeful yet manic smirks on their faces the seven Death Eaters hovered their way into the centre of the corridor before dropping to the ground with a thud.

Harry, like the Weasleys, was disorientated from the blast and didn't have the strength to pull himself up onto his feet. Instead, he surveyed the scene afore him from the ground which saw the Death Eaters settle back to the ground in their identical black robes. In the meantime Harry heard some distant groaning as the Weasleys began to adjust again and bring themselves to stand up. In response the Death Eaters readied their wands as the Weasleys one by one sprung up from where they had lay, wands aloft, and suddenly a mass duel erupted. Harry took the opportunity of the abrupt clashing of persons and colours to jump to his feet too. Nobody had noticed him take to his feet and slip his wand out of his back pocket. From where he stood at the back of the corridor, Harry saw that Ron had instantly immersed himself in a violent wand fight with Draco and Onya who battled back to back. Mr Weasley had ran past his son in order to protect his wife, shielding both himself and Mrs Weasley in order to check whether she was alive. As Mr Weasley monitored Mrs Weasley, Harry skirted past him to spot Ginny entwined with Bellatrix Lestrange who fired random killing curses over Ginny's shoulder. Percy had struck up combat against Amycus and Alecto Carrow whilst Charlie fended off Lucius Malfoy and George attacked Goyle Senior. With no-one to fight Harry was left unscathed and un-seen in the middle of the corridor as he stopped dead in his tracks and had no clue of what to do next. Then, he saw George collapse to the ground writhing in pain to the Cruciatus Curse so Harry bellowed a war cry and rushed at Goyle Senior and fired a Stunning Curse at him, flinging him into the opposite wall. Harry then lifted the curse on George and with a hasty wink the pair of them raced over to Goyle who was recuperating himself and shot a Killing Curse into the ceiling.

Now the Weasleys were combined with the Death Eaters in a spectacular battle (all except Mr Weasley who was bent double over Mrs Weasley trying to help her regain consciousness). Meanwhile, in the duels, Onya shot a trip-jinx at Ron's gangly legs making him sprawl to the ground and leaving Draco the chance to dart off in another direction towards his father. Lucius who was locked in a series of stunning curses with Charlie was sent off balance by a rogue piece of debris at his feet. As he tumbled to the ground his son Draco catapulted sideward and sent a stinging hex into Charlie's face which flung Charlie to the ground gripping his now ruptured, scarred face. Draco then pulled up Lucius and the pair of them then tried to make their way towards the trial room.

Elsewhere, Bellatrix had joined forces with the Carrows and Ginny had teamed up with Percy in a five-way duel which saw a Killing Curse ricochet off the concrete floor and eject into the open air before the green light dissolved into the fog. Percy was responsible for shooting a stunning spell which hit Alecto Carrow in the jaw causing her tumble over a pile of concrete and fall off the edge of the exploded wall and down into the depths of the sea. Amycus, with a mix of anger and upset at his sister's surprise death, shattered a cell door with a swing from his wand before Disapparating with a teary expression. Percy, though he had just accidentally killed someone, shook the feeling off and continued to duel with Ginny against Bellatrix whose insane cackle was audible over the sounds of exploding concrete and cries of agony. On the other side of the corridor Ron had knocked down Onya with his fist. Charlie had joined George and Harry and together with the combined strength of their spells were able to send Goyle Senior hurdling through the air and out into the open where he was just visible to see Disapparate in time before he dropped into the sea. Whereas, Draco and Lucius had swerved past a killing curse to reach the blocked entrance to the trial room.

"BOMBARDA!" Draco shrieked in order to blast the lump of rock in their way into smithereens and so that he and his father could swagger into the trial room. In there they caused horrific, blood curdling cries for help as the jury and its governing body failed to co-operate with one another in sending defensive jinxes at Lucius and Draco. The pair ignored the crying crowd and raced straight to Narcissa who was still chained to the desk in front of the now empty head table. She was teary and gave her husband and son wide smiles as they broke apart her handcuffs and released her. The three then joined in a tight group hug before taking each other's hands and quickly Disapparated. Back in the corridor prisoners from the smashed open cells had now crawled out into the debris to spectate the gradually closing duel. Onya, who was locked in combat with Percy and Charlie, dived on the ground and rummaged in her robes to take out a big handful of wands which she threw into the crowd of at least twenty prisoners. In response they all jumped at the free wands and each one took one with a sense of freedom and glee when unexpectedly fifteen Aurors Apparated into the corridor to immediately fire curses at both Bellatrix and Onya and the newly equipped escapees. The corridor was now full of wizards and witches all fighting for their lives as a couple of Aurors and prisoners dropped to the ground dead already. Bellatrix sliced open George's knee with her wand to distract some of the Weasleys as she made her way to the mass of now fighting prisoners.

"COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!" she hollered cueing at least half of the escaped prisoners to grab onto one another linking onto Bellatrix. She then Disapparated and took eleven of the twenty escapees with her. The other six remaining were beginning to be slammed to the ground by Aurors who had vastly depleted in their numbers already.

Harry found himself shoved to the back of the fight as Mr Weasley and a newly awaken Mrs Weasley gave the scene of carnage a quick look before Disapparating together. Charlie, Percy, George, Ron and Ginny found themselves helping the Aurors knock down the few prisoners left who were being helped by Onya. Onya slayed one Auror with a slash of her wand and an emitting of emerald light which tore his throat out and left him to collapse to the floor dead. As Onya then turned to another tactless Auror and brought him to his knees Harry saw Ginny emerge from a band of two escapees with her wand readied. Events seemed to then occur in slow-motion from Harry's perspective as Onya arched her wand over the Auror on his knees. When Onya was due to strike the blow, Ginny launched herself fully in front of the unknown Auror. At this moment Onya had mouthed the Unforgivable Curse which meant a channel of green light spurted from the tip of her shaking wand. The blast of energy propelled forwards and struck Ginny squarely in the chest causing her swept backwards into the air.

As Ginny was flung off of her feet after being hit she span several times in the air like a pirouette but was able to exchange a look with Harry. Harry, as soon as the curse enveloped Ginny's flailing body Harry screamed out, long and drawn, Ginny's name as he launched into a mad, uncoordinated sprint forwards. Harry cried out as tears flowed down his face and he felt his heart smash against his ribs harder and harder, louder and louder. The rest of the corridor's noise had been shut off, Harry only heard the beating of his heat and the pounding of his footsteps as he raced towards Ginny's falling body. Harry's head was whirring and banging with a million and one different thoughts as he saw the love of his life begin to plummet into the open air and into the depths of black sea below.

_'Must save her! Got to save her! She can't...! She can't do this…! This isn't fair! This can't be happening! That isn't her…?!'_

Harry was in denial, he couldn't face the truth, he couldn't bear the truth, he couldn't accept it. Not now, to him it was impossible and wasn't happening. His body and mind tried to reject such thoughts but he knew it was true, it had to be true.

'_No, it can't be?! Not, Ginny! Not, my Ginny! It didn't hit her! It didn't! It wasn't the Killing Curse! It wasn't the curse…! It can't have been! She can't be dead! She can't be dead! Please don't let her be dead! I don't want her to be dead! Ginny isn't falling! She wasn't hit by the curse! She isn't falling…falling…falling…It's my fault! All my fault! Always my fault!'_

Harry was still running, the whole world was flat, the duelling was dwindling its perseverance as more of the Aurors, prisoners and Weasleys turned to see Ginny falling out of the open wall. Harry sprung over a dead Auror's body and slid on a puddle of blood as Ginny rolled in mid-air and shared her final, waking glance with the boy she loved. Her face showed she was frightened, more frightened than ever before, her eyes were wide and tears stained her pale face as she began to disappear behind the broken concrete floor. As Ginny's body slipped out of sight to fall into the sea Harry saw her pupils dilate and roll into her skull and the muscles in her face relaxed. Ginny Weasley's eyelids closed together as she exhaled her last breath into air and her limp body like a rag doll span to the raging waves of the icy, black sea. She was dead.

_'She's not dead! She can't be dead! GINNY! GINNY! GINNY!' _

Harry reached the gap in the wall of the corridor where Ginny had fallen dead towards the pit of water that faced her corpse. As sound resumed to the world Harry heard horrific, strangled cries from the Weasley family as he dived out of the corridor and into the air to fall towards the sea. As Harry took the plunge to follow Ginny's flailing body he felt the strong wind ripple the skin on his cheeks and the tears he had shed splashed back into his eyes and stung them. His jacket ripped off his back as he held his wand tight in his blood-smeared fist and began to smell the salty sea that lied beneath him. Violent, high waves ruptured the surface of the sea and from what Harry saw they easily swallowed Ginny's dead form into its depths. As Harry forced himself to fall faster his thoughts grew;

_'It's taken her! She's gone! She's drowned! But wasn't she dead, already?! NO! She isn't dead! Can't think like that! Mustn't think like that! NEVER THINK LIKE THAT! SHE IS ALIVE! She's got to be alive, hasn't she?! SHE IS! She has to! She can't die! SHE'S GINNY! AND I LOVE HER! I LOVE HER! SHE CAN'T DIE! I DON'T WANT HER TO DIE! COME BACK, GINNY! GINNY!'_

Harry broke the surface of the sea and dropped into the bone chilling water where he was completely submerged and felt his brain numb with the cold. With his legs and arms also frozen Harry still felt the weight of his clothing dragging him downwards towards the sea-bed which grinned at him from below. Harry didn't know how to breathe underwater or how to swim properly, he had his wand in his hand yet forgot to use it as he swam around the water in order to find Ginny. It was his mission, his sole mission, the only thing he must do, he had to do it, he had to! Harry with the help of his weighty clothes managed to swim deeper under the water in which he saw a quick flash of red in the distance. With this sight he picked up the pace of his swim and manoeuvred his way towards where he had seen the red. As he got deeper and faster he finally spotted her, Ginny's floating corpse drearily drifting its way towards the bottom of the sea. Harry forced his way further down and was finally able to clasp his numb hands around Ginny's waist. He then pulled her up towards him and began to kick ferociously upwards in order to get to the surface. Above him, above the black of the sea he saw a dim light, daylight, the open air. He kicked harder trying to forget about the deadweight he held in his hands which he felt beginning to slip out of his fingers. The surface was getting closer and closer, Harry's wand began to slip from under his enclosed hand around Ginny's waist. He couldn't lose that yet he couldn't let go of Ginny though at the same time. Then he met the surface and felt his head blasted by a fast gust of cold air, as he opened up his mouth he engulfed a large amount of air before continuing to swim. He turned his head to the side and spotted a pebbled embankment which was attached to the side of the prison. With sheer determination but no skill Harry pushed, kicked and swam his way to shore with Ginny's lifeless form and his wand both wrapped to his chest by his hands and arms. After what felt like hours of violent, uncoordinated swimming Harry felt the water level drop and stones brush the bottom of his ripped trainers. He was then on the embankment and dragged Ginny's body onto it and lay her down softly before stashing away his wand into his sagging jeans. Waterlogged and dripping Harry collapsed beside Ginny's body. She was pale and drenched with water, several scars dotted around her face. Her chest was moving, there were no twitches in her body, no signs of body functions…no life signs…Ginny was dead.

"Ginny…?" Harry's voice was hoarse from his previous lack of oxygen and with after no response from Ginny he gently shook her by the shoulders. Again, no response. He didn't know what to do. He had to accept it. Wet, cold and shivering Harry leant back onto his heels and looked upon Ginny's broken body. Her face etched with cuts pale and her eyelids closed she looked like she could have been sleeping…her red hair was tangled and sprayed above her head on the pebbled bank. In Harry's eyes she'd never looked any more beautiful than she did lying there before him without consciousness. Harry had remained calm, shivering just slightly, when he bent over Ginny and lightly pressed his lips against hers for the last time. The skin on her lips were cold, stone cold and wet…Harry lifted his head back up and looked at Ginny's face…she was dead…there was nothing he could do…he broke down. Rocking on heels and shaking violently Harry burst into a fit of fast flowing tears, crying harder than he had ever done before. As he sobbed over Ginny's corpse he began to cough more and more as his wails and moans increased during his fit. As the coughing got worse Harry began to wretch but he could barely feel it as he continued to ball and shiver. All that raced through his head were repetitive, dark thoughts;

_'She's dead! SHE'S DEAD! GINNY! Ginny?! GINNY! You can't be dead! This isn't happening! This can't be happening! It isn't real! She's Ginny…! I love her! SHE ISN'T DEAD! I don't believe it! I don't want to! IT CAN'T BE TRUE! GINNY ISN'T DEAD! She's alive! She's got to be alive! She can't die! Please! It's not fair! It's not fair! GINNY! GINNY!'_

Through Harry's howling and continuous retching he found himself screeching various phrases that slipped from his consciousness as his brain ticked away. He heard himself through blood and water filled ears her name…Ginny…his heart pounded harder and harder…his insides twisted horribly over and over again… He flung his trembling hands to his face and with his numb fingers scrabbled and tore at his face. He punished himself as he rocked and wretched and cried and eventually swung his head to projectile vomit across the pebbled embankment. His throat was on fire, the sick that he had ejected burnt his mouth and left it dry…failing to mop up the mucus on his chin he turned his heavy head towards where Ginny lay. Harry shook aside his damp fringe to admire his girlfriend's immobile figure…her pale skin reflecting the spring time sunshine back into the broken lenses of his glasses. Harry was beginning to acclimatise to the situation and tried to reel his sanity back in, reducing his shaking and tears but then… there was a gentle tap on his shoulder. He didn't want to look around, he wanted to stay kneeling there and with Ginny, he couldn't leave her, not now, not ever.

"Harry…?" came a familiar, deep, booming voice, "It's Kingsley."

Harry shook his head and stuttered, "K-K-Kingsley….s-s-she's d-dea…"

"I know," he replied simply, "Harry, you've got to come with me."

Harry deliberately ignored this statement and shook his head shakily.

"You must come with me. It's time to come away." Kingsley murmured monotonously.

"I-I-I-I c-can't le-eave h-h-er!" Harry garbled beginning to cry again.

"Harry you've got to come away. You can't stand here. It isn't good." Kingsley attempted to pull Harry back a little by his shoulders which Harry flung forwards. Then, as Kingsley went to try and pull Harry up to his feet, Harry dived forwards onto the embankment towards where Ginny's body lay. Harry then shuffled on his belly to Ginny as Kingsley duly followed him with heavy footsteps. When Harry reached Ginny he threw himself over her and when Kingsley approached him and tried to pull him away Harry held onto Ginny and tried to shove Kingsley away.

"Harry! You've got to come, now! You can't stay here!"

Harry cried harder as he screeched in a strangulated, drawn out voice, "NOOOOOOO! _I can't go! _I CAN'T LEAVE GINNY! _Please, please, please….! _I CAN'T GO ANYWHERE! I just can't…YOU CAN'T TAKE ME AWAY FROM HERE! She can't be left alone! NOT GINNY! _Ginny…!"_

Then, Kingsley grabbed Harry by the back of his shirt and turned on his heel and forced Harry to Disapparate along with him. Together they dissolved into the morning air as Harry gave Ginny's corpse a brief final glance as he continued to scream her name and wail with tears. Moments later as Harry lost his breath and was sent spinning in various directions he felt his legs buckle and his knees slam into carpet as he and Kingsley Apparated into another location. Harry opened his dampened eyes and regained the ability to breathe as he realised properly that he had moved. His previously sobbing self-had now stemmed and Harry felt himself be tear-stained, his throat searing like it was inflamed and the rest of his body knelt down on a carpet. It was then we it hit him that he'd left Ginny yet he couldn't muster any more tears so instead he knelt on that spot…lost. He didn't know what to do and so stared blankly into space however his vision was impaired with the missing lense in his glasses. In his sub-consciousness he found himself scanning his new surroundings and trying to identify where he was but he was getting anywhere. Then, he felt Kingsley pull him up by the bit of shirt over his shoulder so that he was able to face him stood up. It was the first time Harry had locked eyes with Kingsley since the latter had arrived for him minutes earlier. It wasn't until he faced Kingsley that he realised everything wrong with his body. Harry then felt his waterlogged clothing, the cuts and bruises on his face, arms and legs, his head felt heavy, his breathing and heart beats were irregular and his throat stung. When he saw Kingsley he exhaled a long breath, realising he'd stopped crying and moaning and though it felt physically better than beforehand Harry felt morally wrong about not being upset. Now, he stared Kingsley in the face in silence without moving a muscle or making a sound.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I shouldn't of done that. Not really. But I guess it was best," Kingsley muttered kindly, Harry in reply gave a shaky nod, "We're in my office at the Ministry by the way."

Harry had considered Kingsley's office to be his current location and now he had been proved correct. In order to determine that he agreed with what Kingsley had said Harry turned his head to look at the room. Well furnished with polished oak book-shelves, chairs and a long desk tottered with parchment Kingsley's office was dotted with various paintings and what appeared to be an accumulation of random magical objects. The office was rather large in size and had lots of room within it it's paisley wallpaper plastered walls. Near to both Harry and Kingsley was a small leather sofa which Kingsley gestured to Harry to take a seat on. Kingsley decided to pull across a chair and sit directly in front of Harry who perched himself on the edge of the brown sofa.

"Do you want something to drink, Harry?" Kingsley suggested for Harry to reply with a shake of the head, "Is there anything you'd to like say?"

Harry gave the question a few moments of thought before producing any words, his brain ticked away slowly like that of a clock, "There's something I don't understand." Harry managed to spurt out, his voice seemed reasonably normal with only a slight quiver to it now just a bit hoarse.

"What's that then?"

A flash of red hair flicked past Harry's eyes, "The A-Aurors…?"

"Ah," Kingsley shuffled on his seat, "The walls of Azkaban are covered in multiple layers of defensive enchantments. The Death Eaters breaking down that wall on that corridor sent a 'wailing' signal directly to the Auror office. I ordered them to leave immediately and followed them duly afterwards. Once you do something like that to Azkaban, the wall I mean, it disintegrates all defences. It's how we could Apparate in and the Death Eaters could get out."

"How did you find me?" Harry shook his head in disbelief as he saw a brief glimpse of a pale, freckled face swim past his eyes.

"When I arrived at the scene my Aurors appeared to have re-imprisoned some Azkaban inmates. When I got there Ron told me what had happened to Ginny, how Onya Lewis had escaped after doing it, and that you'd followed Ginny out through the wall. I believed that you'd make it alive. You always do. I was right." Kingsley gave Harry a weak smile which wasn't returned.

"Did Ron explain what happened?" Harry quizzed Kingsley.

"Briefly…he couldn't say much…the shock…he was a mess…they all were." Kingsley gave Harry an empathetic look as he spoke this.

"What had happened since I jumped?" Harry winced as he saw a flash of black water and a falling body.

"Onya Disapparated. My remaining Aurors captured the remaining prisoners."

"If the alarm on the prison gets to the Ministry immediately why did it take you so long?"

"Emergency protocols…we had to contact the St Mungo's Emergency Response Team…the same one that helped out at Hogwarts at the battle. I'm guessing they came straight after I left to find you."

Harry thought he saw a green light, "What about the others? What's happening to them? Where are they? Is anyone going to the Burrow? Mr and Mrs Weasley left to go there…!" Harry began slightly frantic as paranoia built up inside of him again.

"Harry, calm…" Kingsley reassured him with the wavering of his hand, "I ordered the Aurors to bring any innocent civilians here. They'll all be here shortly, Harry. Now, you…you should rest."

Harry shook his head for Kingsley to reply with a nod.

"You need to rest, it's the best thing. Try to get some sleep. I'll wake you when the others are here." Kingsley more or less ordered him so Harry decided to shrug his shoulders and lie back onto the sofa, "I will see you later, Harry. Now please, rest…" Kingsley murmured giving Harry a wink and turning to exit his office and into the bustling Ministry of Magic Atrium leaving Harry alone and lay down on the small sofa. Instead of dwelling on events just passed Harry decided to firmly close his eyes shut and try and force himself to sleep.

After what felt like hours of restless shuffling on the squeaky leather sofa with his eyes glued shut and ignoring the pains in his face and his drenched clothing, Harry managed to fall into a light sleep.

It was pitch-black, he couldn't see anything, not even his own hand in front of his face. There wasn't a breeze, the air was still, if there was any air at all. No sounds, no light, no scents, Harry couldn't even feel the ground beneath his feet. What had happened? Where was he? Then he felt himself shift anti-clockwise to where a white spotlight appeared out of nowhere and shone onto a singular, lone figure. It was Onya Lewis. She had had her head facing the floor when she lifted it up and stared at Harry.

"Hello, Harry. Nice to see you here," Onya's voice was thick with sarcasm, it was also eerie and echoed, "You look a bit upset? Couldn't of been my fault could it? Oh it was, wasn't it? I killed her…the ginger tart…you're iccle girly friend? Whoops! Shouldn't of done that should I? Did it make little Potty maddy waddy?" she issued a high pitched cackle, "I killed Ginny Weasley! And wasn't it fun?! Are you going to cry Potter? Are you going to cry?! Ooh, look a little baby Potter! She's dead! MUHAHAHAHA…!" the hysterical laughter continued as Harry felt himself spin again but Onya's cackle remained at constant in the background.

In the blackness, another three faces loomed out of another, bigger spotlight. The people it illuminated were the Malfoys; Draco stood in-between his mother and father. All three of them gave Harry sneering looks.

"Pathetic Potter. How goes the day?" Draco smirked.

"Didn't do very well, did we?" Lucius chuckled.

"Good to see you as always." Narcissa spat.

"You failed, Potter. Failed at protecting her, protecting the love of your life…ouch…that wasn't in your diary was it? How does it feel, hey? How does it feel that I beat you? Beat you at your own game once and for all. And you can't do anything about it." Draco rubbed his hands energetically, a wide grin on his face.

"Thought you killed me, don't you? Your friend; Kingsley…the underperforming, disco-ordinated Minister…didn't do so well today did he? So many loopholes in how he's wrapping up this world in cotton wool…it does feel so good to be back…alive, just like the others!" Lucius pumped his fist triumphantly.

"They managed to break me out. You imprisoned me. Didn't exactly work did it? And how does that feel? The woman who burnt you and an entire street, keeping so many hostage and in pain…guilty as charged and yet here I stand. A free woman and you…a broken, sobbing child…" Narcissa was spiteful in tone and then Harry was swung around again, in the distance he still heard Onya's laughter echoing around his ears.

Another spotlight was switched on and gave Harry the ability to focus on yet another figure who stood before him. This time it was Jeremiah McKinnon who gave Harry a sly, relaxed look of smugness as chuckled; "Harry, Harry, Harry…you never learn do you? It's not going to get any better you know. It's just going to get a hell lot worse. I can't wait what about you?" McKinnon shrugged with a glint of glee in his dark eyes, "Such a shame. You thought it was all over didn't you? Technically it's my fault, guilty as charged…still, me? One of the most dangerous wizards around, I didn't bring back those Death Eaters and the Dark Lord. If two teenagers are capable of that and you can't stop them then what does that mean about stopping me? You haven't got a chance have you? Not one bit. You've got yourself a bit of a dilemma there, Harry. All this moping around, isn't going to get your girl back is it? Unlucky, she looked a keeper too…" McKinnon then burst into a fit of maniacal giggles as Harry was turned again.

Now another spotlight shot down and hit skin that reflected most of the light back, the skin was white and covered a bald head which had two slits for nostrils and a pair of gleaming red eyes. Staring into Harry was Voldemort who sighed, "Harry Potter…it's been so long…who would of thought that after eighteen years of setbacks I'd still be coming back…once again Harry you haven't done your job properly. I'm back and it's your own fault this time," Voldemort sneered, "There's no looking back now…you thought I was dead and I was. Now, I'm back and I've come for you Harry. I've come to get you…to touch you…to rip out your heart…to finally get my revenge onto you! I will kill you Harry and there's nothing you can do about it! I am the only one who can live forever!" As Voldemort joined Onya and McKinnon's continuous cold laughter Harry was swung around one final time.

In the darkness the spotlight lit up the final person to face Harry. Long red hair flowing part way down her back, her skin pale and freckled and her face the way that he had remembered it did not give me that familiar, warming smile. She did not near him or make any other expression than the one of disappointment and solemnness that rested on her face. By the look in her brown eyes Harry felt that Ginny was angry in some way but he couldn't understand why.

"This isn't the first time there's been a risk whilst being with you Harry but what happened today ended my life and I hold you fully responsible," Ginny's usually calm, gentle voice was harsh and cold in tone, "You're the Boy Who Lived aren't you? The Chosen One? You defeated You Know Who? And yet you couldn't save me? You couldn't even save me! Me, Harry! Ginny! The one you supposedly love so much! This should have been you, you know?! Dead! Then none of this would of happened would it? I wouldn't be dead! All those innocent people who tried to protect you are dead! Strangers, friends even family…I've lost people I've known and felt guilty for the ones I didn't. And yet it was you, wasn't it?! You! Always, you! Always! Harry Potter the Sainted Wizard! The Holy One! The Great God of Magic! Let us all worship the selfish, power crazed committer of genocide! Harry Potter the liar! The cheat of death! Why couldn't of just died?! Then we wouldn't of lost Fred! Luna wouldn't of seen her dad killed before her eyes! All those people died for you and what for?! What for?! What's the point of you?! YOU DID THIS! YOU DID THIS HARRY POTTER! YOU KILLED ME! YOU KILLED ALL OF US!" Ginny then began to slip away as Harry was pulled backwards further and further. He tried to shout to Ginny but all he could do was mouth, nothing came out the further and further he got from her. Then, out of nowhere the faces of Onya, Voldemort, Lucius, Draco, Narcissa, McKinnon and Ginny were directly surrounding him as he span in the middle of them. Their faces loomed larger and larger as Harry span faster and faster…their boos, their hisses, their laughter, their cries and shouts got louder and louder…Harry saw flashes of green light…flames…falling bodies…he heard cries of pain…Images began to swim before him and shoot past.

Harry saw his mother collapse to the ground with a flash of green light, screaming…Hedwig fell dead in the bottom of her cage…Dumbledore fell backwards off of the Astronomy Tower, his old body broken and limp like a rag doll…Sirius was struck by the curse and toppled through the Veil and disappeared…Tonks and Lupin's bodies lay next to one another on the floor of the Great Hall…blood spilling out of his open neck Xenophilius Lovegood's eyes crossed with Onya's wand between his eyes as she said the incantation…Snape stared into Harry's eyes, bleeding profusely, tears in his eyes which then shut…Ginny was flung through the air and as her eyes met Harry's her eyelids closed one final time…

"HARRY!"

Harry woke up from his nightmare to find himself writhing violently in a crumpled heap on the carpet in Kingsley's office. Dripping in cold sweat Harry also felt drying tears on his face, it also appeared he'd begun to froth at the mouth. As well as this head ached dully and his throat seared painfully, the inside of his mouth tasted of fresh sick. He'd also managed to bit his lip and split it causing it to bleed however he was naturally bleeding from both nostrils too. As Harry acclimatised to his current predicament he rolled onto his back to look up and spot Ron hovering over him. Still shivering Ron offered Harry a hand and helped pull him up and settle him down onto the small sofa. On said sofa there were several new scratches and drips of Harry's blood. As Harry took his seat beside Ron he looked up into the latter's face. Ron seemed panic-stricken by whatever Harry had been experiencing but also his eyes were puffy and his face was blemished with dried tears.

"Harry, are you okay…?" Ron asked him kindly for Harry to jerkily nod, still quivering, "You were fitting…you were screaming nonsense, shaking, bleeding, frothing, crying…you were even sick," Harry saw out of the corner of his eye a puddle of vomit, "What happened, Harry?"

"N-N-Nothing…n-nightmare…" Harry murmured.

Ron gave Harry an understanding expression before continuing, "You need to get yourself cleaned up. There's an en-suite to this office just at the back, it's a bathroom. Go and tidy yourself up, Kingsley said there's some spare clothes in there too." Ron gestured with his index finger towards the back of the office where there was a door. Harry simply replied with a swift nod before jumping to his feet and hobbling over to the door at the back of the office, he turned the brass handle clumsily and fell into the room. It was a small bathroom with a toilet, a mirror and sink though it was porcelain and highly polished. As Harry slid down the door and onto the floor with his knees to his chin he spotted a pair of jeans, a tee shirt, jacket, boots, socks and underwear nearby. He then rubbed his eyes with his hands in despair as a million and one thoughts fluttered away in his mind's eye.

_'What do I say to him?' _

_'What're you worrying about? It's Ron.'_

_'Still…it was his sister…I'm not ready.'_

_'Course you are. He understands. You've both lost the same person.'_

_'But she meant something different to either of us.'_

_'So, what?'_

_'What if he holds me responsible? I'm guilty enough as it is! I can't face him. This is too much.'_

_'You can do this! It's Ron! He was there, he can't blame you! You went after her! You did your best but it just wasn't enough and he understands that…Harry you've got to speak to him…'_

Harry jumped up and trudged towards the sink and stared into the mirror. He spotted the missing lense in his circular glasses and a scratch on the remaining one. His bottom lip was split and still dribbling blood and his nostrils were stained with dried blood. There was some excess froth around his mouth and various cuts and bruises dotted around his face. He turned on the singular tap of the sink with his battered fingers and let the water run as he put his spectacle on the sink side and began to thoroughly rub his face with cold water. He rinsed out the blood on his face causing the open wounds to sting before he gargled a mouthful of water to swill out the taste of sick in his throat. As Harry lifted up his head he spotted a towel and a packet of plasters on a miniature shelf underneath the seat. Harry picked up the towel and scrubbed the remaining grime off his face before taking out some plasters before placing them on various parts of his face and fingers. He then turned to the pile of clothing nearby before stripping off his clothes. In the corner of his eye while he was getting changed he noticed his reflection in the mirror which showed the long scar on his stomach. So he turned to look at the mirror and dropped his head to stare at the long scar which had was now just a thin, red line. He winced as he tenderly poked it and saw a flash of memory of how it happened; the glass sticking out of his stomach at Hogsmeade…the reopening of the wound at the Ministry when Onya killed Xenophilius…painful memories. So, instead of dwelling on the past Harry returned to clothing himself by sticking on the remaining jeans, socks and boots. Now dressed he walked towards the bathroom door and clasped his hand around the brass handle. Ron was on the other side patiently waiting for his return but Harry was unsure whether he could face the brother of his now dead girlfriend. Would he hold Harry responsible? Would he break down? What was going to happen? With no idea Harry decided to be headstrong and burst through the door and back into Kingsley's office. Ron was still sat on the sofa looking particularly startled at Harry's sudden entrance. However, still puffy eyed, he relaxed and shuffled a little more on the sofa to allow Harry to walk over and take back his seat.

"Better?" Ron's voice was quiet, a little choked.

"Better…" Harry replied in a whisper.

"What was your nightmare about?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Was it what I think?"

"Along the lines, yeah."

"Mind if we talk?"

"Course not."

Ron gave Harry a pitiful, solemn glance. As Harry looked into his best friend's eyes he saw a flash of green light reflect back at him. Either a trick of the light or his mind playing tricks on him Harry was disturbed as he took a look at Ron whose face had various similar features to that of his deceased sibling. The red hair, the freckles on the pale skin…Harry felt this heart twist horribly…

"Where are the others? Where's Kingsley?" Harry quizzed Ron.

"Kingsley's with the others in his office. We only arrived about half an hour ago…Kingsley said you were in a state and were resting. I said I thought it best if I saw you on your own first before anyone."

"What happened after I jumped out of the corridor?" Harry asked Ron for a momentary silence.

"The Aurors managed to pin down the remaining prisoners when Kingsley Apparated in. He asked us where you were and we had to explain what had happened and we sent him to find you…we had no idea whether you were alive or not," Ron looked down at his knees, "When Kingsley disappeared to find you the emergency Healers from St Mungo's came and they started to take away all the bodies and tend to our wounds. They collected up all the prisoners and the Aurors and took them back to the hospital but I don't think they were going to try and find that Carrow in the sea. Two of them left to pick up Ginny and took her straight to the hospital we soon followed with the Aurors but we weren't allowed to see her. Kingsley turned up later on after visiting mum and dad at home and bringing them along and told us how you were here and that we'd be able to see Ginny some other time…we more or less came straight away…"

Harry and Ron shared another awkward, silent stare between one another.

"Ron…do you blame me…?" Harry whispered.

Ron gave Harry a wild look; "No! Never! How could I blame you for this?!" he cried.

Harry felt the back of his eyes sting a little, "I don't know…I just thought…"

"Then, you thought wrong didn't you?" Ron assured with a pat on the arm, his eyes red.

"I just…I don't know…I just feel…so…guilty…I feel like it's my fault and no matter how many times I tell myself I'm not the feeling just keeps coming back and it doesn't matter that I hate it because I'm always going to feel like this aren't I?" Harry's eyes became watery, his voice a little strangled.

"Of course you are. It's survivor's guilt, Harry. You can't escape it." Ron's eyes dribbled a tear each.

"It's selfish…I shouldn't be thinking about things like that…I've stopped crying and I don't know why. My head's all over the place…I feel sick…"

"You are not selfish, Harry," tears rolled down Ron's face, "You're the most selfless person I know. You've risked your own life time and time again to save either mine, Hermione's, Ginny's or pretty much anyone whether you know them or not. At the Battle of Hogwarts you could of let everybody in that school die at the Death Eaters' hands but you walked into that forest and gave yourself willingly to Death! That's what you do! You put yourself on the line to preserve what you believe in! Harry, you jumped out of hundred storey prison into the sea to save Ginny! Not even I did that! I stood there and did nothing and do you know how much I regret that?! I wish I could be more like you, Harry! Selfless and brave! Daring to do anything for the people you love!"

Harry had started to cry now, silently, tear after tear dripped down his plastered face as he looked into Ron's eyes, the latter layered in a stream of tears but his voice still strong.

"Harry Potter, you've been my best friend for seven and a half years now. Ever since I met you we've been barely been separated…literally. Yeah, there could be periods of a month or so due to the summer but we couldn't help that. But apart from that, we've stuck together. And all that time we've learnt everything about each other, day in, day out. We've shared adventures…happy times and sad times…we know each other's pasts, we know each other's likes, dislikes, what we like to drink with our breakfast…We know each other too well, Harry. I can read you like a book nowadays. No matter if you're being possessed by You Know Who or speaking Parseltongue or disguised as Vincent Crabbe I still know what you're thinking or feeling," Ron raised his eyebrows and gave a sigh.

"I know how you're feeling right now! I know, Harry, I know! She was my sister and I loved her. For a brother-sister relationship we were close, so close. She was my only sister and when it happened. When Onya killed her, when she killed my sister, I didn't know what was happening. I didn't understand. I didn't want it to be true. And I'm sure you thought the same, I'm actually sure you thought the same. Of course you did. You see, I loved my sister and I still do and so does the rest of my family. But, nobody and I mean nobody, excluding maybe my mum and dad, loved Ginny more than you did," Harry gave a jerky nod, hiccoughing a little as he cried, Ron remained as calm as he could, tears ran down his face, "People can say whatever they damn like but I know the truth. They'll say how she was just your girlfriend but I know that you loved…no, still love her! You two were so perfect for one another and loved each other more than anything in the entire world but that was stolen away from you. You've never had that sort of love given back to you. Your mum and dad, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore…they all were taken away but you had Ginny. Now she's gone you don't know what to do, right? Well she wouldn't want you to do this, Harry! I know I can't talk at the moment but…we've got to move forward."

Harry cricked his neck as he shot a bemused glance at Ron who shook his head slightly.

"Ginny's dead but she wouldn't want us to waste our time…she'd understand that there are greater things at risk…yes, she's gone and yes we have to mourn her but let's get it out of the way now before it comes back to haunt us. There's the possibility of a third Wizarding World War and to be honest I truthfully don't think Ginny would want us to cry over her death when the rest of our family and the world are at risk, more than ever," Ron gave Harry a weak smile, "Ginny was so brave Harry, wasn't she? A fighter, an independent woman in her own right! Nothing could stop her from getting what she wanted and she fight to get it. She waited six years to get together with you, not even Cho Chang being on the scene stopped her though did it? She was selfless too. That Auror was an innocent stranger that she didn't know and yet she jumped in front of him and took the curse for him. No one else would of done that except Ginny and that's what makes her so special, Harry. She was unique, she was beautiful, she was strong and she was the kindest person we ever knew. Now she's gone we fight for her. We fight in her memory and her honour! We defeat You Know Who, Draco, Onya, McKinnon, all of them! All in her name! Yeah?!"  
Harry gave a tearful nod as Ron faltered to speak once more and instead offered out extended arms and the two best friends joined in a tight hug, sobbing. Then, after they patted one another on the back they settled back into their seats and rubbed the running tears off of their faces.

Harry then remembered something and jolted in his seat, "HERMIONE! LUNA! BILL AND FLEUR!"

Ron replied with a voice that trembled, "Luna already knows, she was there with my mum and dad at the Burrow but she's stayed there. I think Kingsley's going to Australia to inform Hermione and Percy's gone to Shell Cottage already to bring Fleur and Bill."

Harry gave a shaky nod, "I want to see the others."

Ron mumbled something as he took to his feet and exited the office duly leaving Harry to sit and stare at the walls of the office. After a couple of minutes Harry heard the sound of footsteps approach the office door which was then swung open on its hinges to reveal the Weasleys; Molly, Arthur, Bill, Fleur, Charlie and George. As Ron walked back into the room ahead of his family who stood framed in the doorway, Harry shot up to his feet. The Weasleys were flecked with little cuts and bruises here and there on their tear-stained faces. Their eyes puffy and red and their hair tousled, the Weasleys with wide-eyed, sombre expressions stepped into Kingsley's office. Harry exchanged looks with the family members for a period of time that felt like forever until Mrs Weasley herself rushed forward in a fit of tears and hauled Harry into a back-breaking embrace. The Weasleys soon followed suit by surrounding Harry in what turned out into a group hug with Harry stuck in the middle of it. All he could think about whilst they hugged him was one thought and one thought only.

Ginny.


	27. Hermione Comes Home

After the Weasleys hugged and cried with Harry they settled down into seats in Kingsley's office. This then cued a discussion which saw the extent of Harry's free-fall into the seas of Azkaban explained and how he dragged Ginny's body out and onto the shore. In return the Weasleys told Harry how Ginny's body was being kept in St Mungo's hospital until they decided what to do with it. Percy it appeared had made his way to fiancée Audrey's to stay for as long as he wanted. Bill and Fleur soon left the Ministry after talking to Harry back to Shell Cottage with Fleur feeling ill as a side-effect of shock and grief to her turbulent pregnancy. Luna was still at the Burrow on her own and Kingsley was still in Australia with Hermione and her parents. By the afternoon the Weasleys decided to return home with Harry in tow. So they Disapparated from the office and find themselves appearing moments later just outside of the back garden gate. They entered through it and made their way up to the house where they accessed the Burrow via the kitchen. As they trudged into the house they heard shuffling and footsteps from the living room which turned out to Luna. Luna dashed into the kitchen her pale face streaming with fresh tears as she was taken into a hug by Harry. After a good few minutes Luna calmed down enough to be sat down back in the living room where the Weasleys explained in detail what had happened at Azkaban. Luna tried to remain relaxed as the story panned out but eventually broke down again which ended with a shaky, sobbing fit as Luna was lost in despair at the loss of her best friend. Eventually the story ended and Ron was left to comfort Luna as Mr and Mrs Weasley with Charlie exited the room to the kitchen. George left to stare into the sky in the garden while Harry ambled into his and Ron's bedroom. Harry made his way towards the window that looked out onto the garden and through it spotted George who was sat in a deckchair with his head in his hands. Harry wasn't sure what he could do to comfort George and what he could do in general so continued to stare out into the garden. As Harry ogled a scratched gnome waddle across the thick grass of the garden Harry heard a _pop _behind him. He turned immediately to see Hermione stood afore him, tear-stained and tired Hermione appeared slightly tanned with her hair bushier than ever, her face screwed up in solemnness. When Harry's stunned face met hers she propelled herself forwards and grabbed Harry and flung him into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry!" Hermione cried as she held onto Harry before he released her gently, "It should have been me…" she moaned.

"No," Harry shook his head, failing to produce anything else more to say about what Hermione said, "How did you get in?"

"I Apparated outside the back gate, according to Kingsley the defences will only allow us and us only into the Burrow. So I was able to enter the garden before Apparating into here. George nearly spotted me but I just wanted to see you and Ron first. Where is Ron?" Hermione queried.

"He's with Luna in the living room."

"How she coping?"

"Not well, none of us are…You?"

"I was a mess when Kingsley told us," Hermione gestured to her red eyes, "But eventually I calmed down enough to come here as soon as possible. Kingsley said he was going back to the Ministry. What's going on here?"

Harry took a deep breath, "Everyone's trying to get through it all. Percy's gone off to stay with Audrey. Bill and Fleur have gone home as Fleur's feeling ill. Charlie's going to stick around. Her b-b-body's staying at St Mungo's…"

Hermione gazed at Harry before replying feebly, "How's Ron?"

"He's being strong…he's being the back-bone for the family, supporting us all, me included…he's handling it better than I expected."

"What about you?" Hermione said as Harry dropped to his bed with a blank expression. Hermione decided to sit beside him.

"I'm trying not to think about it all. Every time I do I break down." Harry explained.

"Tell me what happened Harry."

Harry then launched into how the Weasleys had been called in as witnesses for Narcissa's trial and how the Death Eaters broke in, massacred and left with Narcissa herself. Harry also delved into how Ginny was struck down and how he himself followed her and ended up in Kingsley's office. He also told about how Ginny's body was being stored at the hospital until the family decided what to do with it. All of this left Hermione with wide eyes and an open mouth as Harry propped a comforting arm around his friend.

Hermione then exclaimed, "It isn't fair is it? Why Ginny? What do we do now? What's happening out there? What are the Death Eaters planning for us? What's coming…?!"

The headline read; _'DEATH EATERS RESURRECTED FOR AZKABAN MASSACRE', _with a sole image of the corridor in Azkaban that had been ripped apart and drenched in bloodshed. In the picture Healers from St Mungo's swiftly carried away stretchers laden with multiple corpses. The following article read;

_'Yesterday morning the Governing Body of Azkaban Prison held an emergency trial to come to a decision on the sentence for Narcissa Malfoy. Recently imprisoned after burning down a street in Hogsmeade where she held an audience to a Minister's debate hostage and tried to kill Harry Potter, Malfoy was due a sentencing. After several months in prison and an increase in Dark Art activity on behalf of her fellow Death Eaters, the governors decided it best to try and get Malfoy punished as soon as possible. So, Deputy Minister for Magic Percival Weasley took out time from surveying the trial to pick up his relatives as witnesses to Malfoy's crimes. However when the Weasley family entered the corridor of the trial room the wall to the outside world detonated. Through it came Draco Malfoy and Onya Lewis who led a team of what appears to be newly resurrected Death Eaters. The Death Eaters that attacked the prison have all been reported dead within the past twelve months either from recent months but mostly the Battle of Hogwarts where all Death Eater corpses were incinerated. This has left the Ministry and the world astounded as there is no magic available to wizards and witches that will allow resurrection of any life form. In recent times we have seen the continual return of He Who Shall Not Be Named who appears to of come back to life after his death at the Battle of Hogwarts. It is suspected that whatever dark magic he has used previously to bring himself back to life has now been used upon his old followers. These Death Eaters led by Draco Malfoy and his newly resurrected father broke out Narcissa and escaped with her. However the others remained behind to fight against the Weasley family and Harry Potter and helped break out some prisoners. One resurrected Death Eater was killed as the Aurors of the Ministry appeared to of rearrested some of the prisoners though half of both the prisoners and Aurors were killed in action. In due process one of the Weasley family; Ginerva Weasley, was killed by Onya Lewis. Ginny as she was known was killed trying to save an innocent Auror but saw her corpse exit the prison and into the sea. Lover; Harry Potter, soon jumped after her and recovered Ginny's body from the sea. The Weasley family were then duly evacuated, Potter included, by Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic, himself. They have not been seen since the disaster but it is rumoured they all suffered minor injuries and are remaining out of the limelight coming to term with the grief of their loss. Ginny's body though is rumoured to be still within St Mungo's hospital for the time being._

_ Elsewhere the St Mungo emergency team cleared up the bodies in the corridor to be taken to their hospital until families and or friends organised what was happening with them. The Auror Office and other Ministry employees have taken it upon themselves to clean up the majority of damage in the corridor and reinstate a temporary, guarded wall in the hole's place. Defensive enchantments have been put back up and reinforced making Azkaban more secure than ever before. The temporal escapees have now had their prison sentences extended for cooperating with the Death Eaters. The Auror Office in response to the return of the Death Eaters and the Azkaban break-in has now seen them employ more Aurors and widen their searches into Europe and the United States of America. Still, no sign of You Know Who or Jeremiah McKinnon and others have been found and it has left the Ministry baffled. There have also been calls for Percy Weasley's position as Deputy Minister to be removed because of his connections and relationships. Also, a consideration into even keeping Kingsley Shacklebolt as Minister for Magic has been put across to Wizengamot. At this moment in time while the Ministry of Magic works harder and longer than ever the prospect of a new Minister for Magic is looking more and more likely as Shacklebolt fails to uphold safety for this country and the ability to maintain relationships with other nations. As the Ministry falls to pieces before our eyes and the world is endangered by the return of a previously deceased You Know Who and followers, what is next? And how will the sacred saviour Harry Potter help defeat what appears to be the impossible? The Chosen One, the Boy Who Lived what is he doing? Where is he? How's he helping? I guess we won't know at this point. So here we are here. Left in the dark and panicking for our lives. Let us join together and maybe together we can bring down the forces of evil just one more time and show You Know Who that good does rule the world and he doesn't stand a chance._

_ By Mauricio Carneiro, new Special Reporter.'_

The edition of the Daily Prophet was now several weeks old and now Britain was immersed into the middle of Spring. It had now turned April and Easter was fast approaching with a flourish of bright coloured flowers and high rising plants the Wizarding World was again silent. In the Muggle World every airport had been shut down, every train station was now monitored twenty four hours, seven days a week. Country borders were now guarded by police forces, some army types and several Ministry wizard officials. Shopping centres had limited times to be open and curfews were being introduced slowly to major cities and towns. The world's governments broadcasted mass propaganda to the Muggle public who were given the idea that a super-advanced virus was in the process of developing. The governments said that if they hadn't taken precautions then the virus would of caused an apocalyptic pandemic and so all had to be done. However many saw through this guise the governments held and knew it wasn't the truth and that really something else was happening behind the scenes. This speculation wasn't helped at all by the recent spate of mysteriously, unexplained deaths that had been caused by Death Eater activity. Though Spring had arrived in Britain and the weather was usually pleasant, there had been days of heavy blizzards, thick fogs and freak storms. There was rumour in the Wizarding World was that this happened to be a consequence in rising Dementor activity. That the Death Eaters had found the remaining Dementors had started to manipulate and use them as their own. However nothing had been confirmed as no wizard had seen a sighting of any Dementor or Death Eater and obviously Muggles couldn't see Dementors either.

At the end of March one Auror discovered the body of Yaxley at the bottom of a hill up in Ireland which caused mass confusion in the Ministry. It was suspected there had been some treachery in the Death Eater camp and that the most likely candidates to of killed Yaxley in anger would have been Onya, Voldemort or McKinnon. From this find the Aurors had thoroughly searched the surrounding areas for clues of the Death Eaters. It appeared that the Ministry had access to lots of knowledge on magical criminology. It seemed by using particular incantations and potions that the place where someone was killed could provide how they were killed and by who and how that person escaped and to where. However it was all old magic and nobody was an expert on such things and so the investigation into it all was taking time.

Elsewhere, at the Burrow, things were tense and more emotional than ever. The Weasleys had decided to keep Ginny in St Mungo's until things had settled over enough for them to bury her somewhere. Harry had said that he'd like Ginny to be buried beside her brother Fred in Hogwarts' grounds leaving space for himself to be beside her when he eventually died. Also at the Burrow, Hermione had decided to stay leaving her parents alone back in Australia where they were guarded by at least twenty Ministry officials and visited daily by Minister Grabbleforn himself. It was also apparent in letters sent from Shell Cottage that Fleur was reaching the climax of her pregnancy and that hers and Bill's baby was due anytime soon now. So, Mrs Weasley had been visiting their home as regularly as she could and now began to stay on alternate nights. Mr Weasley popped in as much as he could also but stayed mainly at the Burrow in order to maintain security. He along with George and Ron updated the defensive enchantments surrounding the house every day to make sure nothing but themselves could enter. Meanwhile Luna remained living in the Burrow in Ginny's room but was much quieter nowadays than usual. Sleeping arrangements now saw Ron back in his room with Harry, Charlie had taken to Percy's old room and George got his and Fred's old room all to himself. During the weeks the Weasley family had kept themselves hidden Neville and Percy had both dropped in on the occasion. Neville had now buried his grandmother with Hannah in a private funeral near to their flat, Neville now lived under the radar too. Percy dropped to ensure his family of his safety and wellbeing as well as their own. He barely mentioned anything to do with the Ministry when he visited but when he did the content varied and lessened each time. This was as speculation of where his job was going rose in the media and public eye.

Kingsley visited every other day with news of what was happening in the outside world which was rather just a more personal insight into what the Weasleys had discovered through the Daily Prophet. The paper itself had now become separated from the Ministry itself and now found itself independent and so published whatever it wanted in whatever context they liked it. The Daily Prophet was then known to be the common wizard or witch's voice as nothing was censored in its news anymore. The Ministry of Magic itself was in disrepair with many employees resigning or being hired. The Auror Office was now bigger than ever and stretched beyond what they thought was manageable. No clues apart from the murder of Yaxley had been found leaving the Ministry clueless. Hogwarts was still permanently shut off and guarded by a horde of Aurors every waking minute, no repair work was being made now. Hogsmeade was now on a curfew which reminded many of the times when the Death Eaters ruled the Wizarding World. All residents whether they be shopkeepers or civilians now had to obey to the ruling that saw them inside their houses before seven am and after seven pm. With the entire world in lockdown the Wizarding streets and villages were empty and the Muggle world was in outrage. Things were so different to what they had been the last time, more secure and yet more scared at the same time.

It was now Thursday the eighth of April 1999 when Harry found himself staring out of the kitchen window in the Burrow rather than eating the plate of cold toast in front of him on the table. It was breakfast time and Harry was lost as he gazed into the morning sky with a blank expression. Luna was sat next to him with Ron at the sink cleaning his plate and mug. Harry was then tapped on the shoulder by Luna who had cleared her plate of breakfast. She gestured towards his own with a gentle smile.

"I'm not hungry." Harry lied.

"Sure you are. Eat something Harry. I've not seen you eat properly for weeks." Luna consoled him kindly.

"I don't want to eat it."

"For me Harry?" Luna's eyebrows flickered as she gazed at him with her dreamy eyes, "Please Harry you've got to start eating normally. Ginny…"

Harry rocketed from his seat with a flush of rage and swung a balled fist at the plate of toast that hung off of the kitchen table. It was then jettisoned against the back wall smashing it into dangerous shards. Harry himself gave a strangled roar as he kicked one of the table legs and caused the table to collapse on one side as the leg snapped off. As Harry portrayed his inner struggle with an output of pure anger he burst into a fit of tears with an anguished expression, moaning violently. As Harry lashed out irrationally Ron dropped his pots into the sink and dashed over to Harry abruptly as Luna cowered backwards. Eventually Ron got to Harry as he began punching the concrete wall behind him. Ron tried to calm Harry down and bring him away from the wall but Harry rejected Ron's kindness by flinging his friend backwards in revulsion. Ron, understanding, decided to try again which he succeeded in as Harry broke down, flopping down to a chair and sobbing into his hands. Ron took the seat next to his best friend and put an arm around his back to calm him down. Harry eventually came to a halt with his wailing and managed to wipe as many tears from his face as was possible. When he gradually relaxed back in his seat Ron lifted up his arm.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry…!" Harry apologised with a stutter, "I'm s-s-s-so s-s-sorry!"

"Don't be sorry, Harry," Ron reassured him, "We understand…"

Harry wiped the remaining tears from his face and inspected his slightly bruised knuckles and the mess he had caused by breaking the table leg. A couple of plates and bowls had smashed and knives, forks and spoons cluttered the floor. A large flagon of Pumpkin Juice lay on its side spilling the contents onto the floor. Harry decided to look up from the damage as Luna timidly wandered over towards him. Ron decided to take out his wand and begin to repair the mess Harry had caused as Luna took his seat. Luna gave Harry a sympathetic look as he turned to face her.

"I'm sorry L-L-Luna…" Harry trembled.

"No, don't apologise," Luna said shakily, "It isn't your fault. Come here."

She then offered him a hug which he took, Harry leant towards her and they exchanged a taut embrace which lasted a few moments before Luna pecked him on the cheek and they separated. They then both turned to see Ron finishing fixing the table and the cutlery that Harry had broken as well as refilling the flagon of Pumpkin Juice. Ron gave them both a sombre look as he stashed away his wand and went to walk towards them when something hit him in the back of the head. As Ron ambled across the kitchen a tawny owl had swooped through the open kitchen window and let drop the latest edition of the Daily Prophet. This had smacked Ron on the back of the head and left him to pick up the rolled up paper from the ground which it had rebounded onto.

"Thought we'd cancelled our subscription for this?" Ron inquired as he picked up the newspaper.

"We have done but there's so many days' worth of issues before the cancellation becomes effective." It was George who had entered the kitchen with a bemused expression at sight of the paper. He had said this as he poured himself a glass of fresh Pumpkin Juice.

"But didn't the security we put up yesterday prevent owls entering here?"

George shook his head as he picked up his full glass and began to exit the room to the lounge, "We did yeah but the defences need updating everyday remember. That enchantment isn't the best so it's bound to of worn out by now." George duly left the kitchen leaving Ron in dismay as he carried the newspaper towards the kitchen table where Harry and Luna sat with wide-eyes.

"Well?" Luna asked Ron who unfurled the paper to produce a shocked expression on his face as he flipped around the paper to show both Luna and Harry the front page. It read; "WEASLEY RESIGNS!" and underneath was a large image of Percy himself with a glum expression.

"Read it!" Luna and Harry chorused as Ron turned the paper back to himself to read the following article.

"'_Last night Percival Weasley resigned from his post as Deputy Minister for Magic to Kingsley Shacklebolt. Speculation about Weasley's future in leadership have been increasing as recent weeks have passed by. British wizards and witches have doubted Weasley's abilities when in power and some have called for him to be replaced. So last night in a shocking revelation the ex-Junior Undersecretary Percy Weasley quit his job as Deputy Minster in the Ministry's Atrium to an audience of employees and media staff. His explosive decision caused excitable paranoia after delivering his final speech at top of the hierarchy. He only offered a short reasoning for his resignation but it was enough to understand. The man himself said the following statement;_

_ "Ladies and gentlemen. I've gathered you here this evening as I've decided it to be my solemn duty to inform you what is some sad news. It has come to my attention that both myself and you, the public, have realised my performance in charge of this country isn't as effective as it should be. So in response to this I have decided and agreed it is best with my colleague and Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt that it is time for resignation as Deputy Minister for Magic. I worked very hard for a long time to get to where I was and when you, the people, gave me the opportunity I have always desired I can't help but thank you now for your support. Though my tenure as Deputy Minister has seen some major upsets I cannot deny my pleasure at working for this country. It has been a privilege to lead, direct and please you and I am glad to of worked alongside every employee in this building. However no more than my former superior and good friend Mr Shacklebolt. He is selfless, kind and the best Minister a struggling country and government could ever hope for. I do hope that my resignation and the problems Great Britain and the rest of the Wizarding World face will not tarnish your view of Kingsley. He will do anything in his power to protect you and defeat the demons of evil for however long they like to play with us. I believe the reasoning behind my resignation is as follows and I do hope you respect my decision for the following. I do not believe what I was doing in this role as Deputy Minister was effective as first thought. Yes, I have done my upmost best to do what I can but my best hasn't been enough has it? Kingsley has done by far a better job and I believe he is brilliant enough to manage this country independently if not, better. Also my personal connections to events that have past, those that are current and due to occur are immense. As you know Harry Potter is now part of my family, we have taken him in as our own and at a great risk. We know the risks of having Harry Potter under our roof but his safety is in our best interests and we will do anything to keep him protected at all times. He has been this world's saviour and will be once more if we keep our belief in him and ensure we defend ourselves in the meantime. There is the possibility of a third Wizarding World War and the Ministries of the world know and can confirm this. However we have taken up precautionary measures and so we are ready. So, let us keep our faith in the Ministry and with Minister Shacklebolt and in Harry Potter. I, Percival Weasley, hereby resign from my post as Deputy Minister for Magic in order to stay with, mourn with and protect my family. I now leave this building with one final order. Please, in my honour, give two minutes of your time just to reflect and think and respect the life my sister Ginny did and could of lived. She, just like many other innocent people, gave up her life to preserve peace in this world. All I ask is some respect not just for her but the other dead who fought to protect you. Who knows, one day I could be apart of them. Because just like the men and women of this government, I will fight to save this world from being purged by the forces of darkness. That is all, goodnight."_

_ With that final message Mr Weasley then Disapparated from the Atrium of the Ministry to the silence of the press-gangs, employees and public. They did undertake Weasley's words and gave two minutes of silence for his deceased sister Ginny who died in a break in at Azkaban Prison last month where she went to give evidence with the other Weasleys and Harry Potter against Death Eater; Narcissa Malfoy. Kingsley Shacklebolt will now run the Ministry of Magic as Minister independently unless the Wizengamot intervenes and employs him a new deputy. At the present time the Wizengamot have declared that Shacklebolt's efficiency as Minister is high and doesn't currently need a Deputy unless the country's situation worsens worryingly. Also at the moment the Ministry of Magic has been stretched further than ever before with resignations and employment levels increasing rapidly. With many employees quitting their jobs to focus on their family lives. The Ministry's employment team are spread across the country working harder than ever before to bring in more and more workers as more and more leave. The Auror Office only have a handful of its wizards in the office itself as the majority are spread across Great Britain with some in Europe, all searching far and wide for any signs of any Dark Art activity or wizards. However, as the past weeks have seen, no clues have been uncovered whatsoever. As the death toll of Muggles, Muggle borns and sometimes half-bloods increases steadily everyday no-one has been found guilty of any murders. However the Auror Office have taken keen interest and have begun thoroughly investigating the mysterious murder of Death Eater Yaxley whose body was discovered bloodied and beaten at the bottom of the volcanic plug Slemish in Antrim, Northern Ireland. However no specific information on what the Ministry is doing concerning the strange discovery has been revealed to the public or the media. So, currently, as the death toll rises and the Deputy Minister for Magic resigns You Know Who, Jeremiah McKinnon, the Malfoy family, Onya Lewis and the other Death Eaters are still in hiding somewhere. There has also been no activity on behalf of the Chosen One, Harry Potter who is still out of the public eye most likely in grievance over the sudden death of his long-term girlfriend and sister of former Deputy Minister; Ginny Weasley. All we can do now is stay indoors as much as possible and ensure the safety of your family and friends until things solve themselves._

_ By Mauricio Carneiro, Special Reporter.'"_

Ron lifted up his head from reading out the article unblinkingly, Luna looked simply stunned and Harry sat perplexed, looking at Percy's face on the front of the paper which Ron dropped onto the table.

"That was a shock." Luna stated.

"Yet he's still living with Audrey?" Ron seemed a little agitated in his tone.

"Guess it means he'll be visiting more frequently though?" Harry suggested for Ron to shrug.

All of a sudden came the sound of running footsteps came from the spiral staircase to produce none other than Hermione who burst into the kitchen clutching a letter.

"Hermione, what's wrong?!" exclaimed Ron.

"Look at this!" Hermione tossed the letter onto the table for Harry to pick up and quickly examine.

"It's off Kingsley? Why's he writing specifically to you?" Harry asked her bemused.

"Well, you know the Yaxley investigation?" she began for quizzical expressions to be made by Ron, Harry and Luna, "It focusses all on a particular brand of old magic that's incredibly difficult to understand and perform. It wasn't exactly effective as it could have been back in the day when it was regularly used by the Auror Office. Still with lots of research and practice they still need as much help as they can get as they're aren't any experts in magical criminology. As you know, I read a lot, too much in fact."

Ron snorted at this comment which saw Luna give him a scalding look.

"I found all the books on magical criminology not so long ago and learnt everything I could and its stuck. I contacted Kingsley when I heard the Auror Office were planning to use it and asked whether they needed any extra help and I offered myself up. Knowing my experience in potentially endangering situations and my high intellect he decided I'd be well suited to provide what I can to the investigation. Its all there in the letter," Hermione produced a fleeting grin, "I'm going to temporarily at the Ministry of Magic to help out their investigation into Yaxley's murder and help find out where the Death Eaters are!"

Harry's jaw dropped, Luna who was adjusting her seat nearly slipped of it and Ron who took a sip of some Pumpkin Juice did a spit take. Hermione raised her eyebrows with a subtle smile.

"So you're going to help the Auror Office track down the Death Eaters and You Know Who?" Ron said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed, a little too excitedly.

"This is all very good, yes, but do you mind me picking out the problems?" Harry spluttered for Hermione to give a nod, "You're putting yourself on the front line, Hermione, remember that. You're one of my best friends, we live together, you know more than anybody should and so you're a target for the Death Eaters. They'll know sometime that they're being investigated into and come after the Auror Office. I'm surprised it hasn't already happened with all this independent media rubbish. This has got to be the only time I wish the Prophet was censored but that's not the point. The point is you need to be careful. Not just for my sake but all of us. Yeah?"

"I know, Harry. I'll make sure I'm extra safe." Hermione gave him a wink.

"I'm sure you'll do brilliantly anyway. When do you start?" Harry

"As soon as possible," Said Hermione, "They want me there this morning, I won't be back till tea."

"So this is it? You're really doing this? How often?" Ron was curious.

"Every day if I can," Hermione divulged, "First thing in the morning and I won't be back till evening. Unless you get up quite early you won't see me until later on in the day. They're like work shifts at the Ministry!"

"You're the first one of us to get a job, technically." Luna muttered pointedly through a mouthful of water.

"Excuse me, I was working with George at the shop!" Ron choked a rind of bacon he found on his plate.

"Was?" Harry quizzed him.

"Well the shop's not running now obviously but I was thinking it wasn't really me anymore," Ron twitched his head to ensure George wasn't in hearing distance, "I'll probably quit when things are back and running. Find something else to do. Anyway, speaking of jobs Mr Auror!"

Harry looked simply stunned, "I can't exactly walk out to work these days, Ron. Especially considering every dark wizard has a wand trained at my forehead." Ron shrugged.

"Right…well, I've already said my goodbyes to everybody in the living room so I guess it's your turn?" Hermione interrupted the bantering boys with the lifting of her arms to gesture for a hug. Ron turned to face his girlfriend and was taken in for a snug embrace which saw the couple exchange a kiss on the lips. As Harry got up from his chair with Luna he gave the two a smile. When they separated Luna got to Hermione first for a hug before Harry did. When Hermione gave Harry a hug and a kiss on the cheek he whispered in her ear; "Good luck."

"Be safe while I'm out there won't you?" she murmured back with a fleeting grin as they separated.

Though she had only been back a short space of time Hermione was now leaving the Burrow again and this time daily. Harry knew he'd be unable to see her that often now as she be busying herself with the investigation into the murder of Yaxley. Harry had missed her while she had stayed in Australia and with Ginny gone Harry felt Ron and Hermione together could fill the gap inside of him that Ginny had left torn open. Harry didn't feel complete, but empty and emotionless as he felt Hermione's warm torso slip from underneath his fingertips. As she released herself from the embrace she buttoned up her denim jacket and with exclamations of goodbyes from Hermione, Harry, Ron and Luna, Hermione turned to exit the kitchen door and into the garden. Harry and the other two then took to the kitchen window where they saw Hermione flick up the latch on the back gate and with a swift few goodbye waves from her she walked through the defensive barrier. As Harry, Ron and Luna waved to Hermione she walked through the barrier and disappeared to soon Disapparate to the Ministry of Magic and begin her duties. Only a few minutes ago was Harry and Ron had discussed the possible activities they could of enjoyed that day with Hermione and Luna. Now, Ron sat into one of the kitchen chairs with a glum expression as Luna silently left the room. Harry decided to sit facing Ron.

"You're not the only one who's going to miss and worry about her while she's doing this you know Ron." Harry stated.

"I know but still…she's risking her life, Harry," Ron was a little shaky, "And she's doing it on everyone's behalf. Let's just hope she helps them find out where the Death Eaters are hiding because I can't take much more of this paranoia and fear. I want this over."

"Don't we all." Sighed Harry.

"So we're one step further to tracking down You Know Who? McKinnon? Draco? Onya?"

"Guess so."

"Do you think they're on the same side? You Know Who and McKinnon?"

This was something Harry had ever only speculated in his own head, never to Ron. However now that Ron had brought it up Harry decided to talk about openly, "No. They're not. If you remember it was Draco and Onya who brought back You Know Who, alone. The things Draco did independently he might of got off with McKinnon before because of the Death Eater's break out but since then…no. If Draco has betrayed McKinnon to work with Onya to bring back You Know Who there's no way Draco would tell You Know Who the truth. He would of lied to You Know Who about everything. He wouldn't let You Know Who work with McKinnon as they'd both kill him."

"So Draco and Onya are lying to You Know Who to save their own skins?" Ron began for Harry to nod, "But with You Know Who thinking McKinnon's betrayed him and taken all his followers what do you think will happen?"

"They obviously don't know where each other are. Otherwise You Know Who'd kill McKinnon and take back the Death Eaters. Or they'd be some sort of battle. The latter idea I'm dreading most certainly." Harry wringed his hands in worry.

"I'm with you there," said Ron, "So do you think there'll be another wizarding war?"

Harry his head into one his open hands, "I seriously don't know, I just don't know…"

At the Death Eater's camp Jeremiah McKinnon found himself pacing on the leaf strewn clearing in the centre of the gaggling, ogling followers. His wand was drawn by his side, a heartless grimace plastered over his blood splattered visage as he kicked aside another dead Death Eater. It had been another cold Spring morning where McKinnon had become victim to his inner rage and murdered where he saw fit to rid of his excess anger. Being cut off from the rest of the magical world the Death Eaters found themselves unable to retrieve up to date information on what was going on. It wasn't until the previous morning that they learned of the investigation into Yaxley's murder. Until then Yaxley's abrupt absence had been put down to him fleeing alone, afraid of the consequences of the Death Eaters' actions. However when the news broke that he had been found dead and most likely murdered by a fellow Death Eater that the blame had turned to McKinnon himself. So for twenty four hours McKinnon had tried to contain his secret whilst being unable to maintain his calm. No one else knew of his treachery and he was determined to keep it that way. But on that morning, with the piercing eyes of the remaining followers and the glassy eyed ones of the dead who lay on the ground in pools of blood, McKinnon felt he could keep it no longer. He thought to himself that if he had to reveal what he did he'd have to falsify some facts and ensure the others' loyalty remained intact. Also, it was McKinnon's duty to prepare the Death Eaters for the eventuality that they would be tracked down by the Auror Office. So, McKinnon wiped a spatter of blood from his mouth and gave a rough cough.

"For the past twenty four hours since this camp learned of the murder of Yaxley the eye of suspicion soon roved towards myself. As the one who informed you of his disappearance and because of my violent tendencies as seen most recently you have made the assumption that it was I who killed Yaxley," McKinnon began to the gawping faces of the Death Eaters, "As you've seen I do not take lightly to burden of false accusations for the motives why I did such a deed. Yes, I did kill Yaxley but not out of blind hatred or mindless violence but for simple reasoning."

There was a muffle of whisperings from the gaggle of wizards, one even guffawed loudly forcing Fenrir Greyback to ram a clenched fist into his mouth to quieten him.

"Yaxley tested my patience with his inferiority. He questioned my leadership and loyalty to the Dark Arts and in response and as a victim to my inner volatility I murdered him in cold blood. I therefore take whole responsibility for my actions and the mere possibility that the Aurors will pin point our location. However, by the time their use of outdated magic has provided them with our location we shall have moved and if they try to follow on from there we move again and again and again if we have to! We shall not let the Ministry find us, whatever it may take," McKinnon was now beginning to rouse the crowd of Death Eaters as he continued, his voice stronger and louder and more confident, "We will keep ourselves hidden until we can formulate a plan for this world! How we will demolish the democratic, hypocritical governments and rid the earth of the Muggle and Mudblood scum…and how we will see Draco Malfoy, Onya Lewis in pieces. How we will use the Dark Lord for own good after his deception into the traitorous side and finally, after everything…we will have Harry Potter, dead, in our hands…!"

The Death Eaters produced an uproar of cheers and applause of agreement with what McKinnon had said. Most of them nodded thoroughly as every word had been spoken, all now fully indoctrinated by the power of his speech. Then, one of Onya's ex-followers raised a hand before conveying; "Erm, so when are we going to move?"

McKinnon acknowledged the question with a tilt of his head before replying; "As soon as possible. Start packing your belongings now, don't leave anything behind. Get rid of the fires and use your wands to rid of any traces that we were here. A group of you will have to stay behind temporarily after we leave in order to deconstruct the defences…the Auror Office will be able to deduce we've been there if they detect any defensive charms…" McKinnon paused for breath and stashed away his wand, "Get to work!" he flung up his arms as he turned to his tent and entered it. Behind him the Death Eaters rushed to their own sectors of the camp and began to fling their belongings into trunks and rucksacks plus putting out dismal fires. When McKinnon walked into his tent he surveyed his reasonably littered tent. He popped his head out of the canvas and called for one of the wizards to hobble over with orders to clean up McKinnon's tent. As the stout, balding wizard began to clear up the mess in the tent with his wand McKinnon took to his desk. There lay several pieces of parchment, one included possible locations of Voldemort and the two teenagers. Beside a split bottle of ink stuck into a gap in the desk were two silver daggers which McKinnon, along with the list of possible locations, seized and slotted into his robe pockets. He then swiftly exited the tent with a command to the wizard cleaning up by telling him to pack McKinnon his clothes. Then McKinnon re-joined the fray of bustling wizards and awaited the time when they had finished packing and were ready to go further into hiding.

"Yaxley's dead."

Draco had been missing all that morning when finally he returned to camp clutching one of the latest issues of the Daily Prophet. Still holed up in their camp in the cave beside the waterfall Draco, Onya and Voldemort had been keeping themselves cut off from the remainder of the Wizarding World. Only on a few occasions had they left when in need of dire supplies such as food and drink. This time Draco had exited the camp Voldemort had given him orders to retrieve some sort of up to date information on current events. This is what Draco had returned with;

"His body was found at the bottom of a hill in Northern Ireland…the Auror Office think one of the Death Eaters turned on him," Voldemort who had been admiring the grey sky from the cliff edge remained where he stood when he turned his pale face to listen to Draco. Onya got up from where she slouched at the mouth of the cave itself, "They're using some sort of old magic to figure out who killed him and where they went. If it works and their theory's right they'll find the Death Eater camp. Whether the Death Eaters know or not and have moved or not isn't the problem…once the Aurors find that camp they'll keep following the trail…"

"What are you trying to say, Draco?" Voldemort uttered in his cold high voice.

"I'm saying that using that while the Aurors follow the Death Eaters, we follow the Aurors. Easy enough, we just need inside information on the Ministry. We need to get in there."

Voldemort issued a sly expression as Onya looked simply puzzled. Voldemort then said, "If you remember correctly, Draco, I had the Ministry of Magic under my own control. It shan't be too trivial to simply gain access through its walls and retrieve information."

"Sorry, rewind!" Onya spluttered with a giggle at Voldemort, "Are you officially bonkers?"

"Excuse me, Yvonnya?" Voldemort shot Onya a sharp, scolding look.

"First of all, its Onya. Secondly," she began with a slight snigger, "Both the Muggle and the Wizarding worlds are in lockdown. At the moment the Ministry's the most secure place on the planet. Do you really think it'll be that easy to waltz through its doors because I'm telling you, it isn't."

"And how would a stupid little girl like yourself know?" Voldemort spat, agitatedly.

"I did it myself didn't you know?" she conferred with Draco who nodded to Voldemort to confirm this was true, "Before the Ministry put up full security it was still incredibly difficult to access…I only just managed to get into Weasley's office…!"

"Pardon? You accessed one of the Minister's offices?" Voldemort was flabbergasted.

"Ex-minister…" Draco said pointedly to the bemused expressions of the other two, "That's the other news I should of told you. Weasley's quit to look after his blood traitor family."

Voldemort looked pleasantly surprised as he repeated, "So you accessed a Minister's office? Without detection?" Voldemort quizzed Onya.

"Is nobody listening to me here?! Weasley's gone! The Ministry's cracking, it'll be much easier to access now that they're all fussing over him being gone!" Draco blurted out.

"I agree…" Onya nodded to what he had said before returning her attention back to Voldemort.

"You're a talented girl then, miss Lewis." Onya was unsure which way to take this. Was it a compliment from Voldemort or sarcasm? Would he listen to her?

"So you'll take what I have on board then?" she spat.

"I guess." Voldemort sighed with a slight shrug of the shoulders. Onya however smirked smugly, an expression of satisfactory triumph swept her face as she began to teach Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard who ever lived, how to do something she could and he couldn't.


	28. The Master And The Student

Days turned to weeks and time flew by once again in the blink of an eye for Harry. One moment he was waving goodbye to Hermione as she set off for her first day working with the Ministry to identify Yaxley's killer. Every morning without fail Harry had heard and sometimes witnessed Hermione arising afore the break of dawn, shovelling down a small breakfast before Disapparating outside the Burrow's back garden gate. She usually did not return till late in the evening when it had gone dark. When she came back she usually had to reheat her tea using a flame charm with her wand. As the days progressed the bags under Hermione's eyes worsened and she became more weary and stressed as the Auror Office clung to every piece of evidence getting closer and closer to locating the Death Eaters.

After just one day on the job they managed to locate the exact spot where Yaxley was stabbed. From there they mapped out his pattern descending down the hill. Also the fact that he wasn't just stabbed but use of the killing curse had been into play too. Since those first few days of discovery the Aurors had been working endlessly to narrow down the caster of the curse and then track their Disapparition trail to find where they are. Now nearing the beginning of May it had taken the Auror Office at least a month and a half's worth of investigation. Now on Friday the thirtieth of April nineteen ninety nine the Auror Office were one step to uncovering the killer and quickly locating the Death Eater camp. Whether the Death Eaters were aware of the investigation or not the Aurors knew it'd be simple enough to follow the trace from the camp that they'd find to where the Death Eaters were. They were so close…

It wasn't the only things happening in the Wizarding World though, no. At the Burrow Mr and Mrs Weasley had invited both Bill and Fleur back in. With Fleur just days from giving birth and with Mrs Weasley's experiences in the field she decided it was best Fleur stuck with her for the birth. So now Fleur and Bill stayed in Bill's parents room while Mr and Mrs Weasley slept in the living room. Anxious about the current events encircling them Fleur was making herself poorly with stress which wasn't advisably good for the baby she carried. Bill remained with her at all times and attempted his best to ensure she was calm.

Elsewhere, St Mungo's hospital had agreed to keep Ginny's body preserved in one of their private rooms until the Weasleys were ready to have her buried. At the moment they decided against and so only performed a memorial in their back garden for her. The memorial service was informal and just for the family and saw most of the Weasleys break down into a fit of tears as was expected.

Luna had continued to stay under the Burrow's roof and visited her father's grave on a regular daily basis, sometimes twice a day, just for her to kneel beside where his body lay under the ground and allow her to talk. She talked about recent events, how she felt and she missed him. She'd usually finish off her monologues with her father with a kiss on his headstone.

Excluding these minor activities the Weasleys had kept themselves cut off from the rest of the world and felt much better about doing so. They did not receive any issues of the Daily Prophet anymore because of how it was independent, with the words that were printed not in the voice of the people. Instead they received their information from Kingsley himself who sent daily letters with an owl who could access the tight security around the Burrow. Every day the enchantments were updated and strengthened and were capable of preventing everything from flies to pigeons, from entering, excluding the Weasleys themselves.

Harry had only just managed to eat a single piece of toast that fateful morning when Hermione, who hadn't left early for some reason or another, came bounding down the spiral staircase. Ron who was in the kitchen at the time blasted a bemused expression towards his girlfriend; "Why haven't you left yet?!"

"I got an owl this morning…" Hermione's face was blank as her eyes flickered to a piece of crumpled parchment in her clenched hand. Harry spotting the letter reached forward and grabbed it instinctively before reading it aloud to himself, Ron and Hermione.

"'_Dear Hermione._

_ There isn't a need for you to come in this morning. The Auror Office have been working all night without you and have finally found out who it is. Can't say much here. Death Eater's might be intercepting owl post at the Ministry. Meet me at the site for 11._

_ Kingsley.'"_

When Harry's eyes left the parchment he saw Hermione wide-eyed and a little jittery, Ron on the other hand stood flummoxed, his eyebrows raised.

"They've found out who did it?!" Ron spluttered.

Hermione nodded thoroughly, "I don't believe it myself! We've found the Death Eaters!"

For the first time the whereabouts of Death Eaters came as good news to Harry's ears, he produced a weak smile.

"What time is it?" Hermione speculated.

"Just turned eight." Ron answered her.

"I'll set off at quarter to eleven, get there early…"

"I'm coming with you."

Harry's statement generated a moment of deathly silence.

"You can't come, Harry." Hermione told him firmly.

"Who says? Why not?" he complained, slapping his hands onto the kitchen table.

"It just wouldn't be advisable. Just in case…"

"In case there's Death Eaters nearby, yeah? Like I don't know how to manage such things…"

"You know that's not how it is Harry."

"Course it is. I'm coming," he punched the table with a fist, "Whether you like it or not."

"Fine. On your own head be it, Harry!" Hermione shrugged, giving up, before exiting the kitchen to the living room. Ron gave Harry a 'I don't know' look. Harry shook his head and dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. Ron followed Hermione into the living room and together Harry could hear them explaining the situation to the rest of the Weasley family and Luna. Harry sat with his head in his hands with multiple blurred images whizzing through his mind leaving him with a migraine. As he sat, alone, in the kitchen Harry heard the clock tick away until the time came that Hermione re-entered the room with Ron. It was quarter to eleven.

"Ron's coming too," Hermione said off-handed as she zipped up her denim jacket and Ron stuck his wand into his back pocket.

"Great." Harry said sarcastically as he lifted his head off of the table and lead the other two out of the kitchen shouting out half-hearted goodbyes to the others who shouted back. Then in the garden the trio made their way to back gate, Harry clicked open the magically secured latch with his wand and the trio exited the garden in silence. When out in the open they immediately grabbed one another's hand and Disapparated. Moments later after suffering from mild oxygen deprivation and slight nausea the trio landed on their knees. Harry felt a cold breeze that ruffled the long, damp grass underneath him. When he flicked open his eyes he saw he was knelt down on the side of a large hill overlooking a Muggle road. Beside him Ron and Hermione had already took to their feet and had to walked over towards the gaggle of Aurors. At the top of the hill there was at least fifteen Aurors standing, chattering and in the middle outburst Kingsley who swept down part of the hill to greet Ron and Hermione. After some effort Harry managed to get up too and make his way to Kingsley. The three all shared handshakes with Kingsley and some greetings.

"I could of guessed you two were bound to tag along!" Kingsley exclaimed, "Harry you've taken a big risk in coming here this morning."

"I can handle it. It's fine." Harry sighed.

Kingsley quickly accepted the situation and then headed into the details, "I got the Office to work all through the night. Eventually early this morning we managed to do it," Harry, Ron and Hermione held their breaths in anticipation, "Jeremiah McKinnon cast the curse. He killed Yaxley."

This news left Harry, Ron and Hermione stunned, their mouths wide and their eyes dazed. They looked slightly confused but mostly concerned at the same time.

"It was most likely I guess?" Ron offered.

"Have you been able to designate where he went to after he killed Yaxley?" Hermione quizzed Kingsley.

"Yes, we've just been devising a strategy in case nobody's there or they attack. I'm not sure whether its best that you three come along. It might be dangerous."

"I think I have every right to come along, Kingsley. I am an Auror after all, remember?" Harry argued for Kingsley to simply agree with him.

"There's nothing I can do to stop you anyway. Just keep your wands aloft and hope for the best, yes?" Kingsley ordered them. Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded, "Right, seven of you come with me, the other eight stay here and keep guard!" Kingsley gestured towards the gang of Aurors who Harry was unable to identify any of. Seven of them came forward to the four of them whereas the other eight split up and took posts around the top of the hill.

"You all remember where were going?" Kingsley checked with the Aurors who all murmured their affirmations. Then in his booming voice Kingsley said, "On the count of three!" The Aurors clutched to one another into two pairs and a group of three. Ron took Hermione's hand and Kingsley linked arms with Harry, "Two!" Harry kept a firm grip on his wand, his breathing became heavier, he felt his fragile heart smashing against his cold ribs. He felt breathless, excited and worried…worried what would happen when they arrived at the Death Eater camp. In nervousness he twitched a little, trickles of sweat ran down from his temple as Kingsley gave him a reassuring smile before issuing the word; "One!" The Aurors swung on their heels and Disappeared within a second, Ron and Hermione then followed suit before Kingsley forcibly turned Harry with him for them to dissolve into the air. And if Harry's breathlessness wasn't enough he felt his lungs be crushed as he swung around countless times before he landed flat on his back, winded. When Harry realised he was back on safe ground, a rough, muddy clearing in the middle of a forest dotted with tufts of grass, he jumped to his feet. Checking his wand was still intact he saw Kingsley rise from the floor too through the corner of his eye. Around him Harry saw Ron, Hermione and the Aurors slowly gather around in a circle around Kingsley.

"Kingsley, where are we?" Hermione said gazing at the thicket of trees surrounding them.

"A forest on the outskirts of Dunfermline…" Kingsley's dark pupils roved across the scene. Harry's eyes followed and saw what the Minister saw. A lazily stamped out set of camp fires, some remnants of food here and there and a couple of tent pegs sticking out of the ground.

"They haven't done a great job clearing up after themselves have they?" Ron speculated. _Was this deliberate? _Harry thought to himself as Ron put this point across.

"Still, it's clear they've been here. We just need to follow onto where they went to. Unless they knew everything in which case they might of tried to clear any magical signs of how they left this place," Kingsley sighed deeply, "Spread out and check for any signs that they might still be here! Hermione with me…we've got to figure out where've they've gone to!" The group of Aurors slowly walked to the edges of the clearing in order to search. Harry eyed them suspiciously. For a time of urgency they appeared to be working at an alarmingly slow rate. Ignoring this Harry saw Hermione by ushered by Kingsley to the centre of the clearing as Ron joined Harry.

"Do you think it was worth it? All this?" Ron queried.

"Course it was." Harry snapped back.

"What I meant was…well…if they knew we were coming they'd move again and again. It'd be an endless chase surely ending in some sort of disaster…" Ron prophesised.

"Not necessarily, Ron. Not everything ends in death and destruction, R…!"

Suddenly there was a shower of green and red sparks that rained from the surrounding trees and out from them burst Fenrir Greyback accompanied by four unnameable wizards who were once Onya Lewis' followers. The curses mostly struck the ground causing it to crack in places. Harry and Ron dived to the ground, their wands still held tightly in their hands. Hermione and Kingsley sprinted from where they had stood in a panic. It wasn't just the McKinnon's Death Eaters that were at the scene though. It appeared all seven of the Aurors were actually the newly resurrected Death Eaters that were under Voldemort, Draco and Onya. They had all been disguised via Polyjuice Potion had managed to lift their disguises using their wands. As Harry, Ron, Hermione and Kingsley were left neglected in the corner of the clearing the Death Eaters ensued their own personal battle. In the clearing now stood Onya Lewis, Draco and Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix and Rabastan Lestrange, Travers and Wilkes fighting Fenrir and the three followers. With no words of conversation exchanged the eleven wizards and witches began hurling multiple hexes at one another, screaming and shouting, there was the immediate spilling of blood and various bruising. As Harry, Ron, Hermione and Kingsley hid behind a large boulder Ron shot Harry an expression which saw fear mixed with utter confusion.

"What the hell's going on?!" Hermione exclaimed, her voice higher than usual.

"No idea!" Harry and Ron chorused, both equally worried.

Harry and Kingsley peered over the top of the boulder to spectate the duelling. Together they saw Bellatrix wield a dagger through the throat of one of the followers spraying a bucket's worth of blood flying into the grass. Fenrir had launched himself off one of the trees to land on top of and crush Travers where he tore the Death Eater's throat out with his fangs. Elsewhere one of the weedier looking followers swung a Killing Curse successfully into Wilkes' skull killing him instantly. Lucius and Draco fought back to back and together blasted Fenrir into a pool of mud and blood. Onya who fired a Killing Curse at the third follower jumped onto a tree trunk, she scaled it and when she reached the top swung onto a thick, high branch. Then she released several red sparks into the grey sky. Onya then climbed back down the tree with a wide smile as abruptly out of nothing, Lord Voldemort Apparated into the centre of the clearing. With a new wand aloft in his long fingered hands Voldemort gave a look of acknowledgment at Onya before issuing a high pitched cackle, "NYEAH HA!"

Harry and Kingsley dropped back to the floor with panic-stricken expressions as Ron asked them; "What was that?!"

"You-Know-Who!" Harry and Kingsley, petrified, shouted. Hermione and Ron didn't have to reply with their thoughts because their scared faces exposited their pure fear at the revelation that Voldemort himself had entered the fray. Harry popped his head around the boulder in order to witness Voldemort strike down Fenrir with a single Killing Curse which burst from the tip of his wand. Only one of Onya's ex followers remained but he was able to deftly kill Rabastan Lestrange by sending half a tree trunk crashing on top of him. Now the battle relaxed with only the one follower left to face Voldemort, Bellatrix, Draco, Lucius and Onya. Voldemort inched forwards followed by his cronies to face the last wizard standing.

"Don't dare think of Disapparating blood traitor! I have other business to take care of!" Voldemort spat, his fury echoed around the clearing like thunder, "HARRY POTTER AND FRIENDS! MINISTER SHACKLEBOLT! COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!" Voldemort's anger channelled through his wand setting a tree alight with orange flames.

Behind the boulder, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Kingsley exchanged looks. They were all failing to remain calm, their breathing rate irregular, their faces dripping in sweat, all looking more scared than they had ever, ever been. Kingsley gulped and nodded before slowly rising to his feet quickly followed by Ron and Hermione. Harry reluctantly stayed knelt on the grass, hidden from sight.

"Oh, Harry, you disappoint me!" Voldemort jeered, "I can feel your selfishness radiating from here! Leaving your friends to die by my hand while you hide like a coward?! Be a man, Potter! Stand and face your master!"

Harry knew it was selfish…stupid…ridiculous…pointless...but he was scared. More scared than he'd ever been of Voldemort. Was this resurrected version of Voldemort any stronger than its predecessor? Harry was unsure and didn't want to know the reality. However, though incredibly unnerved he decided to face whatever was coming his way acting brave to show that Voldemort's victory wouldn't be as triumphant as first thought. Harry stood up.

"Ah, Harry, my boy. You've made the correct decision," Voldemort sneered with a wicked grin, "Now for your cowardice you've made the decision of what's going to happen next very easy," Voldemort lifted up his wand gingerly to the cheers of his Death Eaters. Ron and Hermione grasped one another's hands, tears rolled down their cheeks. Kingsley stood tall, his face contorted with courage, his eyes darted around the scene avoiding Harry's eyes.

"I'm going to kill you Harry Potter. You're going to die here and now in front of your friends," Harry's heart beat increased tenfold, the heavy organ smashed against Harry's ribs. Cold sweat and tears enveloped his pale face. He shivered all over, in his head he felt dead already, "You've defeated on countless occasions because luck has been on your side! Today I vanquish all luck and hope, dreams and ambitions! The Boy Who Lived! The Chosen One! The hero of the Muggles, Mudbloods and blood traitors alike! IT'S TIME TO DIE, HARRY POTTER!"

Hermione let out a yelp of fear through her muffled fit of tears, Ron gulped trying to block out the world and his silent tears as Kingsley shifted unnaturally towards his wand…

Harry closed his eyes. He wanted to be prepared for what was probably the inevitable. Was this it? Again? Time to die? The end?

"AVADA KED-!"

"GRAB EACH OTHER AND TURN!" Kingsley interrupted Voldemort with a deafening roar which saw Harry flick open his eyes and roughly seize Ron by his jacket sleeve. Ron who already had hold of Hermione's hand urged the latter to take hold of Kingsley's arm. Kingsley had fired a gigantic fireball in the Death Eaters and Voldemort's direction causing a temporary distraction. The four then turned on their heels to Disapparate but Harry then made a split decision to somersault back behind the large boulder. As he saw Ron, Hermione and Kingsley Disapparate with perplexed faces Harry removed his glasses and through the reflection saw the Death Eaters and Voldemort get to their feet after being knocked aback by the blaze.

Voldemort issued a gigantic scream of anguish as he stamped infuriated onto the singed ground he stood on. When Bellatrix went to comfort him he threw her backwards into some mud.

"Should we go after them?!" Draco bellowed.

"No! The place will be crawling with Ministry scum! We move on to find McKinnon!" Voldemort's cloak swished as he marched towards Onya's ex-follower.

"Name's Foridian Blughix. He was one of my followers before McKinnon got to him." Onya explained as Voldemort took Blughix by the throat.

"Where's the rest of your camp?! Why were you lot still here?!" Voldemort demanded.

"W-w-we stayed b-behind in c-c-c-case of the Aurors!" Blughix stuttered, "They've m-m-m-moved to a-a an abandoned f-field in Caerphilly, W-Wales!"

"Thank you," Voldemort muttered sarcastically before dropping Blughix to the floor. Blughix assuming he'd been left alone by Voldemort tried to get back to his feet when Voldemort swung his bare right foot into Blughix's jaw, breaking it and causes him to spew blood into the floor. Voldemort then removed his wand, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Blughix was sent spiralling backwards to land on a tent peg nearby which ripped through his back and stomach so that his limp corpse lay stuck dripping in blood around the tent peg.

Harry who sat behind the boulder had remained there in order to find out where the other Death Eaters were hiding and now he knew. He assumed Kingsley wouldn't dare to return to the clearing with Ron and Hermione in case of most certain death. So Harry had been left here to formulate a plan of action. In his head he'd decided to find out where McKinnon was and then to go back to Slemish hill in Antrim. However his Disapparition may cause a disturbance so he'd decided against this. Instead he'd follow Voldemort to McKinnon in order to see what their predicament was.

"Now for a surprise visit on our good friend Mr McKinnon!" Voldemort shouted to his followers as they all Disapparated one by one. Harry soon followed suite when the clearing was empty. Moments later Harry found himself only several metres behind the gang of Death Eaters and Voldemort. They had landed in a large field which saw a Death Eater camp close by. Beside the field was a row of dense bushes which Harry decided to hastily jump into as the Death Eaters and Voldemort headed towards the camp. From where he now lay, nestled in the leaves of a bush, Harry saw Jeremiah McKinnon walk from the middle of the camp towards Voldemort. McKinnon was soon followed by some other Death Eaters and two of Onya's ex followers. The bustle of the Death Eater camp had stopped and instead all turned to watch the silent greeting of the two groups in the centre of the field. From what Harry saw Voldemort and McKinnon lead their own respective groups, standing tall with sombre expressions, no words were expressed. Then, when the groups had congregated, finally, words became of use.

"My Lord…" McKinnon's voice was soaked with sarcasm as he gave Voldemort a mocking courtesy.

"Ah, dearest Jeremiah, I believe said meeting has been delayed for too long…" Voldemort sighed, he looked at McKinnon's grinning face with a look of disappointment mixed with fury.

"So…how did you find me?" McKinnon quizzed his former master.

"As I'm certain you were aware, the Ministry's Auror Office has been tracking you down using magical criminology. It worked, we infiltrated and we followed." Voldemort now looked pleased with himself.

"That murder would only lead them to our last camp. And knowing you my Lord, I'm sure you didn't wait until they made the next link…"

"My followers donned the appearances of the seven Aurors who were set to assist Shacklebolt. The originals' bodies disposed hygienically too…" Voldemort chuckled, "They went with Shacklebolt who was with Potter and his friends. When they got to your campus you're 'friends' jumped out for a fight. Miss Lewis called me to provide help. We killed all your men, Shacklebolt, Potter and the others escaped. Now we are here."

"You killed one of your own loyal followers there! Fenrir was an attribute to our successes!"

"And so was Yaxley to ours…" Voldemort snapped back, "You're camp does know you were responsible for killing our own kind?"

"Yaxley had it coming my Lord. He doubted my…our, intentions…"

"Obviously."

"What is that you want my Lord? And I use the term; 'Lord' lightly…" McKinnon sneered.

Voldemort laughed again in his cold high voice before continuing.

"I remember the true McKinnon. The young man I personally taught to become one of the most prolific killers of blood scum around. You had it all, McKinnon. My secret weapon. Only a few Ministry employees even heard rumours of your existence. You were a true success. What happened my boy?"

"Your failure of course. Your loss…your death!" McKinnon replied, "With your death the Dark Art society collapsed and my cover was blown! I tried to kill Potter myself at St Mungo's! Then I was shipped off to Australia where they tried to uncover my identity over and over again! I escaped and returned to England and joined forces with the Malfoy boy before he betrayed me. Now I'm public enemy number one!"

"You speak of a betrayal by Draco?"

Even from where he hid Harry could see Draco's whole body jerk with fear when his betrayal was raised in conversation.

"He resurrected you all using the Deathly Hallows! He stole that information from me! I who had the intention to restore your former glory and see you powerful once more but oh no! Draco here was selfish and took the secrets as an opportunity to impress his lady friend bring back his daddy!"

Lucius and Draco remained silent as Voldemort boomed, "YOU CANNOT TALK OF BETRAYAL MCKINNON! The Malfoy boy tells me different! You wanted me as your personal slave! You wished to take all my loyal followers for yourself! You have showed great disloyalty to me McKinnon!"

"I had pure intentions originally my Lord! I wanted you back as my master but once Draco betrayed me…I knew he'd lie to you and change your perspective of me! I couldn't risk standing loyal to a man who'd consider me a traitor and try to kill me! Now I am your enemy! Now I do stand against you! And don't speak of treachery, my Lord! How can you?!" McKinnon then cackled as he screamed, "TOM RIDDLE! THE HALF-BLOOD! WE ALL KNOW THE STORY! HOW YOUR PATHETIC WHORE OF A MOTHER GOT OFF THE DIRTY FLOORS OF YOUR INCESTOUS FAMILY SHACK AND FORCED A WEAK, DISGUSTING MUGGLE MAN TO GIVE HER CHILDREN! AND THERE HE CAME! THE GRAND HIGH WIZARD HIMSELF! THE HALF-BLOOD KING! TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE! NAMED AFTER HIS DESPICABLE MUGGLE FATHER!"

Voldemort did not react. McKinnon's outburst saw the Death Eaters ogle the pair indefinitely with stunned expressions. However as McKinnon wiped the spit from his chin Voldemort remained calm, fingering his wand.

"We both want the same things, McKinnon…" Voldemort began quietly, "We could join forces and conquer the stain on the earth that is Muggles and Mudbloods! However we are now forever in enmity and so can never successfully work with another. How do we decide who takes hold of this world and kills Potter?"

Harry didn't think he'd be mentioned again so soon in the debate and when his name was raised he felt his heart drop and his insides churn. They were deciding who got to kill him!

"We both have armies which can be easily grown within a short space of time," McKinnon began, "When they are ready they will battle. A Death Eater civil war. Right across the globe a war will wage! Whichever side wins is deserved of the prize to be able to take the world and kill Harry Potter. The damage of our war will tear this world apart as it happens! The world will fight back but when it falls, and it will, the victor of our war will have the remnants of both the Muggle and the Wizarding World to themselves!"

Suddenly there were was a unison of triumphant cheers and multiple war cries from all of the Death Eaters as McKinnon extended a lone hand towards Voldemort. Voldemort eyed the hand with apprehension, his face contorted with intrigue and thought.

"The Unbreakable Vow?"

McKinnon's eyes widened as Voldemort suggested the idea. The Unbreakable Vow was an agreement that saw the breaker die. It was in the title of the piece of magic, the vow couldn't possibly be broken on any terms. McKinnon kept his hand aloft and shook it for Voldemort to get the hint. As Voldemort gripped McKinnon's hand Bellatrix stepped forward and with her wand carried out the Vow.

"Do you Tom Marvolo Riddle agree to handing the responsibility of control of both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds to your opponent Jeremiah McKinnon if your army does so fail to beat his in Death Eater civil war?"

"I agree." Voldemort said.

"And do you Jeremiah McKinnon agree to the same terms for your opponent Tom Marvolo Riddle?"

"I agree." McKinnon said.

A ghostly envelope of light rippled over the entwined hands and then dissolved into the air. Jeremiah McKinnon and Lord Voldemort had just confirmed a Death Eater civil war and the mutually assured destruction of both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Harry Disapparated as the Death Eaters erupted into erratic cheers excluding Draco and Lucius who stood emotionless at the side, ignoring the provocation of Onya who jumped around smiling and laughing.

Harry landed on his knees on the cold concrete footpath that led off from the Burrow's garden gate. Usually he'd be able to feel the familiar searing pain caused by the stone of the path but on that day Harry's knees were numb. His whole body was numb. Numb and cold. Cold and shaking. Harry was pale, his heart beat was slow and he could hear his pulse pounding against his ears. He was dripping in cold sweat, dried tears stained his grubby face.

_A Death Eater civil war? _he thought. McKinnon and Voldemort had agreed on the end of the world because of their personal vendettas like it was closing a business deal. No emotions were spared as the two had confirmed whoever won in their worldwide catastrophic battle would be given access all areas to the destroyed Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Oh, and the opportunity to execute Harry. Harry couldn't forget that. There was going to be a worldwide Death Eater civil war, destined to kill hundreds, thousands and all in order to decide who would get to kill him. Harry wanted Ginny. He wanted her to be with him at that very moment. To tell her everything. All his fears and worries. He wanted to cry on her shoulder, hold her close, touch her sweet smelling red hair and kiss those lips…his heart ached. His brain felt like it was on fire. He felt sick. So he vomited over the Burrow gate before clumsily entering it. It was guaranteed Kingsley, Ron and Hermione had told the Weasleys what had happened and now it was left to Harry to tell them all about the war that was coming.

After he tripped into the garden Harry ran as fast he could towards the open kitchen door. He raced through the empty kitchen before bursting into the living room where the Weasleys sat and stood having listened to the other three. As Harry entered there were screams of his name as Hermione dragged him into a back breaking hug before releasing him. Now panting Harry quickly explained everything he saw after he stayed behind with the Death Eaters.

"Kingsley you've got to tell every Ministry the situation! That a Death Eater civil war is going to happen soon! We don't know where in the world it's going to be happening but we're damn sure there'll be lots of them looking to kill as many innocent people as possible! Now get out of here! Prepare the world for war!" Harry screamed at Kingsley who sprinted out of the Burrow immediately to Disapparate to the Ministry without even a second thought.

"Harry what do we do?!" Luna cried.

"Contact everyone! The Order or whatever's left of it! Hogwarts professors! The D.A.! Family, friends! Anyone and everyone! Warn them, tell them to defend for themselves! They'll be targeting us! The main battles will be at the Ministry as Kingsley knows, Hogsmeade and Hogwarts! It's guaranteed!"

"When will it happen do you think?!" Ron exclaimed.

"A week at least! It doesn't take hours to organise a world war!" Harry panted, out of breath.

"Plus, we've got the upper hand!" Mr Weasley joined in, "They're unaware we know about the war! We'll be ready for them! If you're sending owls be cryptic in case they're intercepting! If you're visiting people Disapparate out of the gate! Now let's get going!"

Mr and Mrs Weasley soon exited to go to Percy and Audrey's. Luna rushed out with George to go to Neville and Hannah's. Charlie went in search of none other than Aberforth Dumbledore who had gone into hiding. With Fleur heavily pregnant and due anytime soon Bill stayed at the Burrow to send out cryptic letters to the former teaching body of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry took to Mr Weasley's advice at staying at the Burrow too with Ron and Hermione to accompany him. Not as help or guidance but as general support. Together they began to write out letters to every single member of Dumbledore's army that they could remember. The only problem was that Bill and Harry's idea would see all the letters be taken at one time. However the Weasleys relied on their old owl; Errol who was unpredictably useless. The trio sat in a triangle at the end of the kitchen table with only the ticking of the clock and the murmur of Fleur and Bill's conversation in the living room being heard.

"Last time we weren't expecting a battle and we still won," Ron piped up, "Who's to say with all the existing security and preparation that we won't just destroy the Death Eaters' attempts?"

"Last time saw a battle condensed to a school. This is a war, Ron, a world war…" Harry contradicted him.

"I still think we stand a chance. Every country's pretty much prepared."

"That's what we hope for yeah."

"Why can't you just accept that we stand a chance?"

"To be honest I don't even what to think about it."  
"Well, you're going to have to when you see everyone dyi-!"

"QUIET!" Hermione cut in angrily, " There's going to be a third wizarding world war that'll spread and destroy the Muggle world too! And here you two are! BICKERING! Like children!"

Hermione's shouting resonated around the kitchen.

Harry refused to look at Ron though the tension between them had begun to thaw with Hermione's outburst.

"What would Ginny think, huh?" Hermione said, calmer, "You two. Her brother and the love of her life. Best friends. Look at you both. Would she want you to do this?"

"No…" Ron sighed, his voice quite hoarse. Harry shook his head.

"So what would she say? If she saw you right now?"

Ron spoke first, his eyes red, "She'd tell me to hear Harry out and stop being so stubborn."

Harry gulped, "She'd tell me to let Ron have his say and try not to wind him up."

"Exactly…" Hermione smiled, a tear fell from each eye before she began to cry. Ron propped an arm around her and gave her a squeeze, Harry took hold of her hand.

"And she'd tell you to not be such a wuss!" Ron joked prompting a light laugh from Harry. It was his first in a while, it hurt the sides of his mouth.

"And to cheer up, be strong and look after us two!" Harry chuckled.

Hermione looked up from the table, her face dripping in tears, a wide smile on her face as she extended her arms.

"Hug?" she suggested.

"Hug!" Harry and Ron rolled their eyes sarcastically as they joined Hermione for a group embrace before duly separating.

"Now, we've got letters to write and a war to prepare for!" Ron grinned as he picked up his quill to return to writing a letter to the Pavarti twins.

As Harry went to continue his letter to Seamus Finnegan he smiled as the feeling of fake elation swept over him. He, Ron and Hermione weren't happy whatsoever but their brave personas and the general feeling of unity and love provided them the basis for pretend happiness. As Harry sat back to sign his name on the parchment and pop it into an envelope he couldn't help but have everything rush through his mind at once. The Death Eater civil war, Ginny…all of it floated in the abyss that was his mind…he tried to push the thoughts of negativity out and pretended for the first time in weeks that he was happy. And this lie continued right through the day.

By the time he, Ron and Hermione had finished writing their letters it was early evening. So they decided to take it upon themselves to update the security of the Burrow advised by Bill. Bill, as they removed, replaced and constructed numerous charms, mentioned how he and Fleur expected their baby to be born within the next forty eight hours or so. That would place the birth date of the child on May the second nineteen ninety nine. Exactly one year since the Battle of Hogwarts took place. After they completed the updates, the rest of the Weasleys and Luna returned from their visits. From what they said all had agreed to cooperate in defending wherever the war took place. As the family took to a very late tea the Burrow received countless reply letters from the former teachers and students of Hogwarts. Errol was the only owl that had access through the defences with the Weasleys and Kingsley being the only humans. In the letters received it appeared all they had contacted were determined to whatever they could to fight the oncoming war. Even the likes of Professor McGonagall and Slughorn were prepared to do whatever they could to be on the frontline. Shortly before midnight, with everybody still wide awake, Kingsley entered the Burrow. He explained that word of the war had spread to the four corners of the world already. Each and every Ministry had started to organise fighting forces. The Auror Offices were immediately signed up and then volunteering opportunities arose for any other Ministry employee and or public member.

The main Wizarding buildings and villages saw their security increased and even more Aurors deployed in place. In the Muggle world the worlds' governments became aware of the situation. From this they moved their propaganda from the lie that was a viral pandemic to a worldwide rebellion. Everyone was warned of mass forces rising up against authority and doing whatever damage they could. This theory was to be more believed than its predecessor. The Muggle authorities in cooperation with the Ministries began evacuations of Muggle citizens so that the major cities were left unoccupied. Eventually the capital cities would be empty and the country sides full. The majority of airlines were shut off and border control was more intense than ever. The entire world was now either being forcibly removed from their homes or being petrified by propaganda. Nobody knew what was true and what was false. The Muggle world was in panic and the Wizarding world was in total lockdown, what seemed like troops were now gathering and preparing. Whether the Death Eaters knew or not Kingsley was sure the war would still take place no matter what. Now it was all a matter of time. How long it took the Death Eaters to build up their own armies and organise points in the world to fight. The Ministries had employed undercover agents to spy on the Dark Art underworld to find out anything relating to the war. Eventually a whisper would get to the top of the hierarchy and the world would know war was coming. The troops would assemble and the fighting would begin. The final battle.

When Kingsley left the Burrow it had gone three in the morning. So, Mrs Weasley ushered everybody to bed as soon as possible. As Harry clambered into bed, tired, depressed and thinking solely of what was to come, after an hour or so of tossing and turning he finally dropped off to sleep. That was when the Dream started…


	29. Ignotus Peverell

White. Silent.

The last thing Harry remembered himself doing was admiring the Chudley Cannons poster that adorned the ceiling above his bed in Ron's room. Extremely tired and battered by the day's emotional fight Harry had found himself running various dark thoughts through his mind. As he ogled the familiar poster for what felt like the millionth time, he saw Ginny's face swim in front of him…in a reverberated voice, that was owned by Bellatrix Lestrange, he heard the terms to Voldemort and McKinnon's Unbreakable Vow… Then, as the Keeper dropped the Quaffle on top of one of the Chaser's heads Harry was enveloped into blackness. Asleep. Or so he thought. Now, he had no idea where he was.

Everything was white. There was no ceiling, no walls and no floor but everything was white. No beginning and no end, no top and no bottom. There were no colours where he was found, not even a streak of anything. Just pure, brilliant white all around him. Harry couldn't hear anything. There were no sounds. Nothing at all. Complete silence. Harry lifted his hand up and grasped nothing. He didn't feel anything, there was no air, no wind and no heat. He looked down at his hand, it was pale with not a single mark on it. Harry then decided to check out the rest of his body and it appeared that he was naked. He wasn't wearing anything, not even his glasses which was peculiar considering his sight was perfect. His body was unblemished, not even the scars on his head and stomach were visible. He was clean and without bruises and felt light like a feather. He decided to take a step forward but he didn't feel anything beneath his feet. They weren't cold and they were hot, just like the rest of him, he was unsure he felt any temperature around him at all. _'Where am I?'_, he thought.

He decided to spin on his heels and all around was nothingness, just white, all around him. Where was he? Was he dreaming? Harry assumed he was dreaming at first thought but now he was totally unsure. He remembered everything that had happened when he went to bed and even how he began to fall into his slumber. However he'd never experienced such a bizarre dream and when he awoke after a dream he didn't remember any kind of thought processes involved. Dreaming didn't involve thinking. It was something that just happened. Something that occurred in the brain when people were unconscious, images generated like a film that are usually related to whatever's been happening in the person's conscious activities. However, Harry had no memory of anything that he had done recently that would create such a strange world where he'd be naked and everything would be white. It couldn't be a dream, otherwise he wouldn't be thinking and the reasoning behind why his mind would create such a thing was beyond him. So Harry decided to settle on another possibility, one that seemed more likely but was much more frightening. He was dead. Possibly.

The last place that Harry had been too that resembled this was the King's Cross limbo he had shared with Dumbledore. After Harry had sacrificed his life in the Forbidden Forest to destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul attached to his, Harry found himself somewhere like this. While the Battle of Hogwarts was in intermission, Harry stood in King's Cross with Dumbledore and discussed his future, the Deathly Hallows and Dumbledore himself. This place was ghostly in a similar way. Harry again had found himself naked and alone but there wasn't a child-like creature under a bench and no train station. The place was empty. So, was he dead? Did he die? What happened whilst he slept? Did he die of natural circumstances caused by stress or grief? Or was he murdered? Harry shuddered physically at the thought that the Death Eaters had got to him. What if Voldemort had found the Burrow, broken the defences like he did at Hogwarts and slaughtered every single of one of them. All the Weasleys, Hermione and Luna. What if they were all dead? Did Voldemort finally succeed in delivering the Killing Curse? Or maybe it was McKinnon or Draco or Onya?! Harry didn't know. He didn't want to know. Even if the Weasleys had been thrown from their bedrooms like Ginny had fallen from the Azkaban corridor. Even if Hermione's mind had been wiped clean of him like her parents had been of her. Even if Luna was stabbed and beaten to death like her father was in front of her. Harry just didn't want to know. But he doubted he was dead. Surely he'd awake first before he died? If he'd been violently killed he'd wake as the knife slit his throat…the green light struck his forehead…

If he wasn't dreaming and he wasn't dead and it definitely wasn't reality then what was it? Where was he? How could he get back? Could he get back? Would he ever see Ron and Hermione again? But if he was dead he might see Ginny! And his mum and dad, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore…! He hoped he was dead. Well, no, he didn't want to be dead. But, if he was dead then he'd be fine with that. More than fine. If he was dead then he'd see them all again. Though he did want to see them all again he didn't want to think about it. So, he became aware of his nakedness. Though he was alone in nowhere he didn't feel comfortable with it, he wanted to be clothed. Just some robes maybe, anything to cover him up. Then it happened. He was clothed. He now wore robes of white that brushed the floor and a white sash to match. Even the inside pockets and the lining of the robes were white. His undershirt and trousers were also white which matched his socks and pointed shoes. He realised he was now wearing glasses again, his sight exactly the same if not better with them than without them in his absurd world. He removed them from his face, they were white too; the nosepiece, the arms and the screws. There wasn't any tape in the middle where Harry rubbed his index finger, disappointed, he sighed. Everything was perfect here and though that should be considered such a beautiful, fantastic thing he couldn't help but be a little annoyed. He liked the imperfections of the real world but now, being in this place of tranquillity and perfection he couldn't help but want to get out. To escape. Back to reality.

He wondered if anyone else was there. Surely he couldn't be alone in such an infinite place. There had to be at least one person there.

"Hello?" his voice reverberated loudly, echoing against nothing. For a several moments there was no reply of any kind, not a single sound was made.

"Harry," the voice reverberated like Harry's, a delayed reply to Harry's question. The voice sounded familiar but it wasn't until it repeated Harry's name that it Harry recognised its familiarity. It sounded like his own. Its tone and accent. The voice sounded like both Harry's own voice mixed with a bit of Harry's father, James'. So the fact it resembled Harry's voice more confirmed it wasn't James, so the only way to identify the voice was to find its owner. So Harry turned around and there stood a man dressed identically to Harry excluding the glasses and that this man wore a large, pointed hat that was white too. He looked like Harry and James, he had jet black hair that was ruffled in places and shining blue eyes. His nose was rounded and his ears small, his mouth formed a smile to show white teeth which Harry was sure he shared in this place. The mysterious man was pallid in complexion too, the skin stretched over his skinny form, he appeared to be just an inch taller than Harry. He spoke again; "Harry."

"Who are you?" Harry asked as the man walked towards Harry.

"Me?" the man chuckled, "I seem familiar, yes?"

"You like me and my dad. I don't understand."

"My name is Ignotus Peverell."

Harry's brain whirred abruptly, his thoughts lit like wildfire. Ignotus Peverell! The third brother from the Tale of the Three Brothers taken out of the Beedle the Bard. The story about how the three brothers wanted to cross a river and used their magic to construct a bridge to cross to the over side. Having cheating death, Death himself rewarded them with gifts. Ignotus took Death's own Invisibility Cloak to hide from him for the rest of his life as Death killed the other two brothers. Ignotus then saw his cloak passed on, generation to generation. Harry was his ancestor and had received the cloak from his father. In a way Ignotus had helped Harry survive death to return and defeat Voldemort and end the Second Wizarding War. Ignotus' grave lay near James and Lily's in Godric's Hollow's cemetery. Harry had touched it himself. Ignotus had been real, that had confirmed. But Ignotus was long dead and if he was here now and talking to Harry, that meant he was dead too.

"Am I dead?"

"No, Harry."

"But you're dead. Hundreds of years ago, yeah? You are my ancestor? The third brother? The one who hid from death and passed the Cloak of Invisibility down to me and my dad? It is you?" Harry was in denial, shock. He couldn't believe he wasn't dead but Ignotus was here.

"Yes, its me." Ignotus laughed again.

"So, he exists? Death, I mean?"

"No, no. Death isn't a person, Harry. Don't be childish. It's a spirit."

"So, no-one gave you the Cloak? You and your brothers?"

"Something spoke to us. Some sort of force. Asked us what we wanted for rewards?" Ignotus explain casually, Harry eyed him, stunned, "We replied. They appeared. The rest is history, I guess."

"So there is such thing as Death?"

"Death is rather a force…the thing that takes us from life and punishes us when we disobey what he has planned for us. He tried to punish us for defying him but it backfired on my behalf. I outwitted it. And if I hadn't you wouldn't be here…alive!"

Harry didn't know what to say, his voice struggled to exit his mouth, "So I am alive?!"

"Didn't I already say."

"But you're still dead?"

"Yes. I remember it well. My last living moment. With my wife, my children and grandchildren all around me…one of the happiest and yet the saddest moment of my existence." Ignotus exhaled, a sad smile on his face.

"So…if you're dead and I'm not. How are we here? Together? Is it limbo?"

"It wasn't limbo last time you were here, Harry. Well, not technically anyway."

Harry was confused, completely and utterly lost, "I don't…"

"Dumbledore did what I'm doing now. Breaking from the Other Side and into your dreams…"

"Dreams?! And how do you know about Dumbledore?" Harry said exasperated.

"I spoke to Dumbledore myself on the Other Side. I had to correct him on some things, made sure he got his facts straight before he talked to you. I told him how to reach you, though I've never tried this before," Ignotus explained, "You dream I assume?"

Harry shook his head in disbelief, "Yes." He was a little agitated.

"Well, tonight was my best opportunity. You weren't dreaming. And when you're not dreaming, this is what it looks like. Think of it like a blank canvas."

"So this is what my mind looks like when I'm asleep and not dreaming?"

"Yes. The best place to meet. The unconscious place for imagination and thought. Your mind and my soul can fit in here. I apologise for not having the ability to create a setting. Dumbledore did seem more of an imaginative chap than myself. Plus I wasn't sure what you'd like." Ignotus chortled, he seemed continually joyous.

"So this is where I dream? And because my mind didn't choose to dream tonight you could come in and contact my unconscious mind?" Harry confirmed, making sure he understood it.

"Yes."

"Explain to me. What happened between mine and Dumbledore's souls? He said we were…connected?" Harry had always been puzzled by this and now he was guaranteed an answer.

"Ah…" Ignotus grinned, "Souls are funny things. When a person dies a soul has four options depending on the morality and content of someone's life. If they're morally evil they lose their soul. It's gone, nothing happens to do it, it just doesn't exist. If you're morally good and scared of death then you're given a half-life. The ability to have a form in the living form but you're not alive. A ghost…"

"Do ghosts…?" Harry interrupted to see Ignotus' intrigued look, "You know. Pass over?"

"Oh yes!" Ignotus said, "Ghosts are made when somebody's scared of death or they have some unsolved business in life. Once that problem's solved or they accept death their soul moves into the Other Side."

"So what's the other options?"

"A painting," Ignotus smiled at Harry's frown, "If somebody's a figure in society, somebody whose made a difference, somebody's whose important enough…their soul can be fashioned into a picture. It's like a ghost, just trapped in a frame. And when the portrait's destroyed the soul moves onto the Other Side. However paintings are tricky. Little more complicated than a ghost. Their soul's split. Half in the painting. Half in the Other Side. Their soul's 'conscious' only in the painting."

"So explain Dumbledore to me."

"Well, he was in painting form wasn't he?" Harry nodded, "However, he knew the dangers that you faced and needed to help you. He focussed his consciousness on the part of his soul in the Other Side to help you. That switch of consciousness to and back from the Other Side saw the painting's soul piece latch to the living Harry. By destroying Dumbledore's painting you ended the connection and Dumbledore's soul piece was released to join the other in the Other Side. Otherwise half of his soul would be stuck to yours for eternity."

Harry nodded again, understanding. Finally he had got the answers.

"So, I'm guessing the final option is for your soul to go straight to the Other Side? Like you, my parents and Sirius?"

"Yes. Me being here won't join our souls as I'm already on the Other Side."

"But surely you haven't made this meeting just to explain about souls and the afterlife?"

Ignotus' face fell sombre for the first time, "Souls in a way yes…but, Harry there is something I wish to address to you…I'm right in assuming you're aware of how Voldemort was resurrected?"

Harry hadn't heard the name aloud for months and it was strange to hear it come from Ignotus.

"The Hallows? That's why you're here. Because of them?" Harry conferred.

"Harry, I was there at their creation…I know everything there is to know."

"What I don't understand is how he can be back. People can only with souls right? I destroyed his. Didn't I?"

"Ah…that's an interesting one," Ignotus specified, "You know people can live without souls, Harry. Dementor victims? After a Dementor's kiss? But you're right. Voldemort couldn't possibly live without one."

"Then explain to me how he's back."

"Harry, did you ever think that the Hallows were designed to be a reward?"

Harry shook his head, _'Not in my case'_.

"You're correct," Ignotus began, "From the moment we're conceived there is a plan for us all. Death is part of this plan. It sets out when we exit this world, when, why and how. However Death never considered the divide between Muggles and Wizards. He never understood the consequences of magic. And how it could be used to defy his plan. When me and my brothers constructed that bridge and avoided our inevitable fates we changed everything. We didn't die like we should of and in return Death wanted revenge. He wanted to punish both us and the rest of the two worlds."

Harry nodded, the things he heard rushed through his brain…confusing him…enlightening him…

Ignotus continued, "So, his new plan saw him falsify rewards for what we did. I was suspicious unlike my brothers. Death wanted us dead so why was he rewarding us for not doing so? For outsmarting him…"

"Though Death didn't have a form?" was all Harry could muster.

"Still, it's easier to refer to it as him. Even now, safe on the Other Side, he thought of it being a force still sends me insane. I prefer to give it an embodiment." Ignotus shuddered, Harry realised that this was better for his ancestor.

"I understand."

"So, Death asked us for what we wanted and his plan was for that we'd be so selfish and indulge ourselves in the most outrageous of gifts that would be designed to kill us and anyone who took them after us. My brothers fell for this wicked trick and asked for, as you know, the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone. The wand saw many wizards kill one another for its supposed immense power, my eldest brother being victim to it of course. The stone was designed to send its owners insane as it failed to bring back their loved ones completely and made the owner depressed enough to kill themselves. However, with my suspicions intact and Death unaware of those, I asked for his own Cloak of Invisibility. It meant me and my descendants could hide from Death until we were ready to go happily."

"I understand the Hallows were designed to kill, yes, but I still don't understand about the Master of Death. If the Hallows were supposed to kill their owners then why do they have the ability to give someone the ability to overcome death if Death wants everybody to die before their time?" Harry thought he made a good point here but his question didn't leave Ignotus clueless or unsure. Harry did want an answer to such a thing and he was confident Ignotus could give it to him.

"Ah, well the Master of Death isn't exactly what it seems, Harry," Ignotus creased his brow, a look of contemplation entered his expression, "Being Master of Death doesn't give you immortality."

"I didn't expect it too." Harry said as the wave of realisation crashed into him. He was still the Master of Death, the owner of the Hallows.

"Exactly. Death did design for this happen, the Master of Death I mean. But he would never see anyone become immortal. Never. Especially with his intention to end all life. Being owner of the Hallows sees you overcome death one time and one time only. You were lucky you became it in time. If Dumbledore hadn't planned everything so specifically there was a fifty-fifty chance you'd be dead or not."

Harry expected to die properly next time. Still, the revelation that he could of died in the Forbidden Forest after all if Dumbledore's planning had gone wrong. Harry tried imagine what things would be like if he hadn't disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor. Harry would be dead and Voldemort would reign over the Wizarding world.

"That isn't all though, Harry. The main reason I'm here is to do with Voldemort's resurrection. Because with the Master of Death comes the Resurrector."

Harry spluttered; "The Resurrector?!"

"Yes. Even the Master of Death's ability to overcome death once cannot be an advantage of the Hallows. As I've said they're designed to kill," Ignotus emphasised, "Its prophesised that the circumstances in which the owner of the Hallows overcomes death that it will lead to the eventuality of a single person to resurrect another who will help them try to destroy the one who avoided certain death. In our situation, Harry you died in the Forbidden Forest just to come back and thwart Voldemort. Onya Lewis brought Voldemort back to kill and take the Muggle and Wizarding worlds!"

Though this was too much for Harry's brain to cope with he tried to remain as calm as he could and stared at Ignotus with a blank, emotionless expression.

"So, Onya's the Resurrector?"

"Yes."

"What's the significance of her then? What is the Resurrector? How is Voldemort back?!" Harry was becoming frantic in his questioning, "You said the Hallows were destined to kill?! So why have they brought back the Death Eaters?!"

"Good question," Ignotus started, "The Hallows were destined to have an owner and for them to thwart their enemy and return from the dead. With that in mind the Hallows were constructed to be able to bring back people likely of evil back from the dead. Assuming the Resurrector has immoral intentions then everyone they bring back is due to commit murder or assist in killing in some form. The Hallows are still designed to kill. They kill their owners and bring back the worst kind of humans to kill even more innocent victims."

"But what I don't get is, you said Death wanted everybody dead? But he's bringing back people?!"

"Eventually, Harry, there'll be a day when the only people left in these worlds are of evil. And then there will be a power struggle and they will kill each other until nobody is left but the Resurrector themselves!"

"Why does Death want everybody to die? It isn't all surely coming from what you did?"  
"No, no…Death had been thwarted too many times by that point. We were the final piece in puzzle that put his plan into action. He'd had enough with wizards and witches cheating death so decided everybody should die before their time!" Ignotus' statement made Harry shiver slightly.

"You said something about the Resurrector being the only person left…?"

"Yes. That is until Death takes them personally after they've done his job for him."

"His job?" Harry exclaimed, even more bemused than ever.

"When the person who offers themselves as the Resurrector brings back their first person something begins. You see if the Resurrector kills the person they have brought back first they become Death's accomplice, this companion, his partner, his friend! The Disciple."

Harry didn't know what to do or say except collapse to the non-existent floor beneath him. He could feel nothing under his backside as he looked up at Ignotus who knelt down beside him with a sombre look. Ignotus had retained the youthful looks he owned before his death as an elderly man. As Harry glanced it him he again saw the resemblance of Ignotus with himself and James. How similar they all looked.

"Harry, the Resurrector has risked everything to forcibly take your Hallows and brought back either their loved one or a powerful being. By sacrificing such an important being sees Death grant the Resurrector a role in becoming his Disciple. From that point onwards every person the Disciple has killed or will kill will have their soul taken and stored in the Resurrection Stone. Eventually when the day comes that no one else is left but the Resurrector, that is the day when Death will grace the Earth and take his Disciple's collection of souls. This being because whoever the Disciple kills is supposed to be of some importance or power and the more of this a person has in their life then the more valuable their soul is. So, Death will then consume the souls and be able to destroy his Disciple and then consume everything that is left leaving it to be the most powerful force in existence."

"So…" Harry lost his wording, "If Onya kills Voldemort she becomes the Disciple? And everyone she's ever killed or will kill sees their soul collected inside the Resurrection Stone for Death to consume when the worlds are empty. Giving Death enough power to destroy Onya and take everything else for himself?"

Ignotus nodded.

"Something you didn't explain earlier…" Harry tried to forget what he had just been told so that it didn't plague his mind as he found out more, "How can Voldemort be back without a soul? And the Death Eaters too? Surely their souls were destroyed for the evil they committed?"

"Yes…" Ignotus looked anxious, he looked at Harry sadly as he continued, "They all lost their souls. The only reason they can all be back is because they took souls from other life forms."  
"I'm sorry?"

"When you saw Voldemort come back, did anything die?"

As Ignotus asked this Harry remembered the rain of dead birds, "Yes!"

"Animal souls do not own morality or personality but just keep their hosts alive. Being much smaller than a human's the Resurrection Stone absorbs as many as it needs to fulfil that of a resurrected person who was evil in their former life…"

"But Voldemort remembers everything that happened to him! He's exactly the same as he was when I killed him! I thought animal souls didn't have morality or personality?!" Harry interrupted.

"The souls just keep them alive. Their personalities and memories and everything else is reanimated from where it left off when the person died. Nothing is changed, nothing is new."

"What about the bodies? All the Death Eaters' bodies were incinerated."

"The resurrection doesn't just reanimate memories and personality but the body too."

There was still something else bugging Harry, "Can the creation of the Disciple be stopped?"

"Yes. There's two options. A before and an after option," Ignotus explained, "Before the Resurrector kills the first person they resurrected you either kill that person first or just the Resurrector. Killing the Resurrector would sever all connections and everyone ever brought back by the Hallows returns to their previous state. Dead or non-existent. Killing the first resurrected person sees the opportunity to become the Disciple disappear for the Resurrector and nothing else happens apart from the Resurrector can't bring anyone else back and all their previous resurrected stay alive. Now the after option is when the Resurrector becomes the Disciple. Killing their first resurrected sees the same effects as before they are the Disciple. That and the souls collected move onto the Other Side."

"Wait….?! Voldemort will be dead? Onya only becomes the Disciple with his death. How can I kill him if he's already dead?"

"Voldemort's body is the only one out of them all whose hasn't been incinerated. His reanimated animal soul will simply divert to the original body and form where he died."

"So he doesn't die then?"

"There will be an incantation in Onya's head that will channel through her wand and obliterate the soul and the body permanently. You'd only have seconds to beat her to it."

Harry nodded glumly for Ignotus to continue.

"If you kill the Disciple then everyone resurrected by them returns to their previous state. Also, you're given the opportunity to decide what to do with all of the souls collected. Either return them to life or let them progress onto the Other Side."

Abruptly a thought whizzed into Harry's mind. If he let Onya become the Disciple and then killed her it would mean he could bring back Ginny as she had fallen victim to Onya herself.

"What happens then? After she's defeated, Onya…What happens to Death? Does he try again?" Harry put the thought about Ginny at the back of his mind, he must know all the answers first.

"Whatever you do to Onya Death will give up. He will realise that the plan isn't full-proof and that such a thing can't be attempted again. So he reverts back to his original plans for everybody. He doesn't try to consume everything alive and instead resorts to remain as an escort for the dead to the afterlife. If he's outsmarted or beaten he will realise he'll never overpower wizardry and leave the two worlds alone." Ignotus exhaled.

Harry adjusted his white glasses as he said in a tremulous voice, "So, I've got to decide haven't I? Who to kill and when to kill them? Yes?"

"Yes. Though it'd be advisable to such a thing as soon as possible it is entirely up to you, Harry."

He'd met a dilemma, "I can't let anybody's souls be collected in case things go wrong. Because if she discovers I know about any of this she'll have me killed. It'd be better to stop her becoming the Disciple but…"

"But what, Harry?" Ignotus grilled him with a piercing look as to ask him what on earth he was thinking.

"If I let Onya become the Disciple first then kill her then I save the souls of the people she's killed! But, wait, where are they now? With her as the Resurrector and due to become the Disciple?"

"Stuck in eternal limbo."

Harry gulped, "I can't let them stay like that."

"So you're going to let Onya become the Disciple?!" Ignotus cried.

"I can't let people's souls stay trapped! If I let her become the Disciple there's the possibility I can let them into the Other Side or bring them back!"

"Harry whatever decision you make for one of them affects them all. I know about Ginny. I know you want to bring her back but that'll mean everybody else too!"

"Life is better than being stuck in limbo!" Harry shouted. His voice echoed loudly around him.

"So, who do you kill Harry? Killing Voldemort takes the souls to the Other Side. Killing Onya brings them back. Make the decision!"

Ignotus' voice rung in Harry's ears as Harry put his head into his hands. He had to kill either Voldemort or Onya after taking the risk of letting Onya become the Disciple. But could he defeat Voldemort in combat and let Ginny move onto the Other Side? But could he really kill Onya and bring back everybody she killed? Ginny, Xenophilius…

"What are you going to do, Harry?" Ignotus asked him.

"I don't know…" Harry sighed.

"At the moment luck's on our side. Onya's unaware of what she has to do to gain her powers…"

"Powers?!"

"Yes. With the responsibility of collecting souls for him, Death rewards her services with ultimate powers that can be channelled through the stolen Hallows." Ignotus explained to the agape mouthed Harry.

"So she'll be powerful?"

"Yes," Ignotus acknowledged Harry's defeated look, "Still want to her to become the Disciple?"

"Maybe."

"I know about the war, Harry. She's most likely to become the Disciple when that begins. There she'll have the best opportunity to collect as many souls as she can."

"Will she know what she's doing? Collecting the souls, I mean."

Ignotus shook his head, "No. Not really. She'll be sent insane with power, desperate to cause as much death and destruction as possible. She'll feel empowered but have no idea what she's doing."

Harry decided to remain head-strong as possible as he clambered to his feet, Ignotus copied him so that they both faced one another.

"Do you know when the war will begin?" Harry asked him.

"Time will tell. My knowledge is expansive but not that like that. I can't read the future."

"How do you all of this though?"

Ignotus gave his first laugh in a while, "Being there at the Hallows' creation. Ancient prophecies that are long gone. Dumbledore did his best to copy up everything into readable scripture. That's what the documents Onya and Draco have are. Dumbledore's translations. The only thing stopping Onya from knowing what to do is because of an ink mark. Once she gets rid of that she'll kill Voldemort."

Harry nodded thoroughly.

"Anyway, it's time to wake up, Harry." Ignotus said.

"Really?"

"Yes. You know when you fall asleep and wake up or dream it feels like you haven't been unconscious for hours but seconds. Well, think of this like an extended dream. No matter how long you think you've been here, Harry you've been asleep a normal amount. I best go."

Harry didn't want him to leave. Though the things that Harry had learnt here had scared him, worried him, annoyed him, confused him…he didn't want to wake up. If he did he'd have the face his dilemma in reality. Whether to let Onya become the Disciple or not? Whether to kill her or Voldemort before or after this? What to do with souls? Let them move on or return them to life? That's if he could save them. Would Onya or Voldemort kill him first? It was all going to happen at the war. He just knew it.

"Well…" Harry garbled, his voice hoarse, "Thank you…for everything…"

"Goodbye, Harry." Ignotus said with a weak smile before his body faded into nothingness and Harry was left grabbling nothing as he rushed forward. For a moment he was alone in the white abyss then he woke up.

When Harry awoke there was a thin strip of sunlight beaming through a gap in the curtains, lighting up the floor near Harry's bed. When he flicked open his eyes, wide awaken yet both mentally and physically exhausted, he jumped out of his bed immediately. From the watch Mrs Weasley had given him on his seventeenth birthday originally owned by her murdered brother Fabian Prewett, Harry saw it had only turned six in the morning. Snoring in the opposite bed was Ron who Harry shook awake.

"Whaa?!" Ron groaned as Harry shook him violently.

"Wake up! I need to tell you and Hermione something! I had a dream! Well, it wasn't a dream but…RON!" Ron realising something was wrong forced himself out of bed and told Harry to remain calm in their room as he went to wake Hermione. Wide awake Hermione followed Ron back into the bedroom where Harry sat perched at the end of his bed, shuddering.

"Harry, what's wrong? Ron said you had a dream?" Hermione was sincerely concerned. Then, Harry launched into the full story of what had happened to him. How he had met Ignotus in the Dream World and then everything that Ignotus knew and had told him about the Hallows…the Resurrector…the Disciple…Death…As Harry explained everything he had learnt Ron and Hermione sat on Ron's bed transfixed, expressions of horror and worry and paranoia mixed on their faces. Eventually, when Harry finished, Hermione threw her arms around Harry and squeezed him tightly. Ron sat aback with a blank look.

"I…I don't know what to say…" Hermione gasped as she released Harry, her face contorted with anxiety, "Harry…what do we do?"

"Nothing." Harry replied.

"Are you mad?!" Ron injected, "You've got to make a decision, Harry!"

"I know. I either let Onya become the Disciple or not. I kill her or Voldemort. I don't know what to do."

"If you let her become the Disciple you can let the trapped souls go onto the Other Side or be brought back?" Hermione queried.

"Yeah…I can't stop her before she becomes the Disciple. I don't mind taking the risk if it means I can save Ginny and all the others' souls."

Ron gave a heavy exhale, "Fine, I understand that. We can save Ginny's soul. But what do we chose? Voldemort or Onya? Letting them pass over or bringing them back?"

"No idea…what do you think is best for them?" Harry wondered. Ron and Hermione sat in silence for a moment before replying.

"If you were to let them pass over that would mean fighting Voldemort," Hermione began, "He isn't exactly as strong as he was, is he? But do you want them all to pass over?"

"And do you think you can kill Onya? I mean, I'd try to bring back Ginny but…she'll be powerful after becoming the Disciple won't she?" Ron stated.

Harry didn't know what to do. He gave a half-hearted shrug and with his head in his heads he produced a muffled moan. His head hurt with everything that he'd learnt and with his new dilemma. Confused, annoyed, upset, scared…his mind was racing…his heart beating faster…

"Everybody's probably up now," Ron interrupted Harry's train of thought, "Let's get breakfast, yeah?"

Ron's offer seemed reasonable so Harry and Hermione followed him down into the kitchen where the Weasleys and Luna were in and out of getting their breakfast. The trio didn't share anything with the others and ate in silence. Nothing else of importance happened for the rest of the morning and well into the afternoon. The Weasleys, Luna and Harry moped around the house and garden almost in silence. With the organisation of troops ready and waiting for the outbreak of war, they had nothing to do but wait and worry. When was the war going to start? Where would they defend? Harry didn't want to ponder on such a thing so busied himself de-gnoming the garden. Seeing that the abundance of gnomes were flung to the back of the garden. As Harry did this he was watched by Ron and Hermione who tried their best to get a normal conversation out of him. They failed.

Eventually the day ended with a silent dinner and they all went to bed early. Harry didn't fall asleep immediately though he was more than tired. Instead he plagued his mind with various dark thoughts and was distracted by the moans of Fleur in Mr and Mrs Weasley's room. With her pregnancy coming to an end the baby was expected anytime soon and on that night Fleur seemed in some pain. Though Harry wondered whether she was nearing the time to give birth, he was too wound up in his own delusions. After lots of tossing and turning Harry fell into a restless, nightmare filled slumber. Images flickered by of many things…random events that were all somehow linked…as these images past Harry's conversation with Ignotus could be heard pounding inside his head. As Harry heard the mentioning of the Resurrector, the Disciple and Death he could see flashes of green light…Dumbledore toppled off the Astronomy Tower…Voldemort stood with his wand raised in the clearing in the Forbidden Forest…Harry saw his own hand wipe away snow from Ignotus' grave…a hooded witch which was Onya tore out Xenophilius' throat…Harry pulled out Ginny's corpse from the depths of the sea…

What would he do?! Voldemort or Onya?! Taking the souls to the Other Side or bringing them back to life?! When would the war start…?!

"ARGH!" the shrill scream rung through the entire house before reaching Harry's eardrums. As Harry jumped awake, ignoring the cold sweat that clung to his clammy skin, he recognised the owner of the scream. It was Fleur. And there could only be one possible reason for why she was screaming. It was time. She was giving birth. As Harry exited his bedroom, where Ron was absent, and vaulted downstairs he met the entire Weasley family, Luna and Hermione standing between the kitchen and living room. On the largest sofa in the living room Fleur was lay back, legs open, giving birth. Bill's hand was clasped tightly to hers. Mrs Weasley was knelt beside the sofa in order to deliver the baby. Mr Weasley stood near as the others were congregated in the doorway to the kitchen. As Harry came down the stairs he spotted Ron and Hermione and went to them.

"She's giving birth?!" Harry exclaimed, his voice a little strangled.

"Yeah!" Ron shouted over Fleur's screaming.

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"You were screaming just as much, Harry. We guessed you were having nightmares so Ron's dad slipped you a Sleeping Draught to help you. Obviously didn't work effectively enough." Hermione explained. Harry was left in shock. He'd be screaming in his sleep, again.

"Fleur you're nearly there! One final push!" Mrs Weasley hollered from the other side of the living room. Harry swung around his head to view the commotion, as did the others. Then, with one final, drawn out scream, Fleur stopped. Harry could hear a cry and then an exhausted laugh of relief from those who surrounded Fleur. Then with a squeal Mrs Weasley exclaimed, "It's a girl!"

As Mrs Weasley and Bill helped Fleur rid of the afterbirth and cut the umbilical cord, the rest of the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and Luna all cheered and laughed and hugged and kissed in jubilation. The baby girl's crying had now ceased and from Harry was being jostled between the family he could see Bill hand over a body swaddled in blankets to Fleur. Both of them with wide smiles on their faces as Fleur tickled the nose of her the life she had just produced. Though Harry's head was filled with a multitude of frightening thoughts he tried to focus on being happy for once. Fleur had had a baby! There was a new Weasley! A new life! Harry was then too occupied with joy to think about what dangers this child now faced on first entering the world. There was a war coming and this baby would be so vulnerable, such an easy target…they could kill her.

"Now, Fleur, you're not in a fit state at the moment. It'd be best if you got some sleep first, yeah?" Mrs Weasley told Fleur who nodded, smiling but Harry could tell she was exhausted from labour…how long had she been through the agony of childbirth? Hours? The whole night? Harry didn't know. Mrs Weasley then ordered her husband to retrieve the same potion that was probably used on Harry the previous night. Fleur immediately fell into a deep sleep as Bill disposed of the afterbirth and umbilical cord with magic. The others including Harry moved into the kitchen to wait for Fleur to awake. Except Harry didn't want to be in vicinity of the others and so decided to move into the garden followed by Ron and Hermione.

"Wow…just…wow…" was all Hermione could manage. A beam plastered on her face.

"I'm an uncle?" Ron spluttered in shock.

"Yeah…" Harry sighed.

"It's wonderful isn't it? A brand new life?" Hermione said.

"I agree…I'm just worried about her already…" Ron's comment saw Harry turn to him so fast he cricked his neck.

"Me too." Harry confirmed his fears.

"And you don't think I am?" Hermione joined them, "There's a war coming. She's a baby…"

"Nobody deserves to be born into the middle of a war but…let's just hope she doesn't lose Bill and Fleur…I wouldn't have another kid losing their parents on behalf of You Know Who…" Ron stated for Harry to give him a slightly puzzled look, "In the first war you lost your mum and dad. In the last war Teddy lost Remus and Tonks…?"

Harry had forgotten about Teddy Lupin. His godson. With everything that had been happening in the previous months Harry realised he hadn't considered or given any thought to the little boy. Harry had been asleep when Andromeda Tonks took Teddy back to her home. He had been unable to say his goodbyes, never mind spend any quality time with his father's friend's child. Harry being his godfather should have done so much more…the time they could of spent together, Harry wasted…he felt guilty, like he'd let Teddy down.

"He'd be one by now, wouldn't he?" Hermione wondered for Harry to slowly nod. Teddy would have been one years of age by this point. Never mind Harry busying himself with other problems that might of not concerned him to waste potential bonding time with Teddy but he'd now missed his godson's first birthday. Who would have been there to celebrate it? With no grandfather Ted or mother and father Tonks and Remus respectively Teddy probably spent his birthday alone with his grandmother in her home…Would Remus be disappointed with Harry? Or would he understand what Harry had faced this past year?

For the next two hours, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat, later accompanied by Luna, in deckchairs at the bottom of the garden admiring the blue sky. While they sat there in the early summer's morning sun they discussed potential baby names for the baby which saw an outbreak of laughter. As Luna wondered whether Fleur would accept her option of naming the baby girl Snorkack after her Luna's fascination with the mythical beasts; Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. This comment provided a fit of chuckles which Harry was more than glad to enjoy. His first group laugh for such a long time. Then, George bounced out of the kitchen door and into the garden where he told the four they could see Fleur with a warning that Mrs Weasley would murder them if they unsettled the baby. So one by one they re-entered the house and into the living room. Smiling widely and lay back on the sofa with her head propped up on a pillow was Fleur whose arms cradled her new baby still covered in blankets. Bill had used his wand to clear up any blood and now sat calmly with a grin upon a stool beside the sofa. Mrs Weasley sat on an opposite sofa. When Hermione and Luna saw the baby they gave out little whimpers of happiness, Ron issued a 'ha' as Harry just stood smiling at the baby whose eyes met his. The baby had some silvery, blonde hairs on her bald head, rosy cheeks and a small button nose underneath a pair of gleaming, hazel eyes.

"She's beautiful…" Harry whispered, Fleur and Bill gave him a thankful glance.

"What's her name?" Luna enquired.

Bill inclined his head for Fleur to tell them, "She eez called Victoire."

"That's adorable." Hermione giggled.

"Eet eez French for Victory." Fleur explained.

"Fleur thought it'd be suitable…a commemoration to our victory last year…a reminder to look on the bright side." Bill expanded.

It dawned on Harry…it was May the second nineteen ninety nine…one year since the Battle of Hogwarts…as Harry lost eye contact with the smiling Victoire he saw flashbacks of last year's events whizz by…breaking in and out of Gringotts…Griphook and the Dragon…Aberforth and Ariana…the Room of Requirement…Horcruxes and the Grey Lady…Snape's death and his memories…Fred, Colin, Tonks, Remus dead…the Forbidden Forest…limbo with Dumbledore…the Great Hall showdown…master of the Hallows…

There was an uneasy silence in the room as everybody realised how Harry had been disturbed by a reminder of the Battle. Bill and Fleur's happy faces now turned sour.

"I'm sorry, Harry…I didn't think…" Bill said.

"No…it's fine…" Harry lied.

"Eet isn't just a tribute to zee Battle either eet eez also an homage to our friend Viktor."

Viktor Krum, Fleur and Harry's competitor at the Tri-Wizard tournament. Harry remembered Fleur and Krum becoming good friends, he was even invited to the wedding. Now Fleur's child's name was a homage to her Bulgarian Seeker friend. Harry gave a slight chuckle. He didn't want to wallow in his own despair but concentrate on making the baby in front of him happy. Victoire Weasley. Born with a name to celebrate good's defeat of evil. With her eyes resembling her father's and hair that will be like her mother's…her whole life ahead of her. Harry just hoped it wouldn't turn out as badly as his did.

After Harry, Luna, Ron and Hermione admired Victoire she was moved upstairs along with Fleur who was very weak. Together they lay in Mr and Mrs Weasley's bed with Bill to accompany them. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna and Hermione relaxed in the living room with George and Charlie. Mr and Mrs Weasley prepared dinner in the kitchen. It was reaching one o'clock in the afternoon when Harry and the others were playing a game of Exploding Snap on the carpet. As Harry issued a triumphant cheer when one of Charlie's cards spat a cloud of soot into his face with a bang there was a sudden drop in the temperature of the room. As it was early summer it was a rather warm day but now the room felt much colder. And the temperature kept dropping. It must of hit freezing in seconds when Mr and Mrs Weasley ran into the living room shivering alike everyone in there already.

"What's going on?!" Mrs Weasley screamed at the teenagers who all shrugged before she ran up the staircase saying how with such temperatures Victoire must be kept heavily wrapped up. Harry stayed silent then as the Weasleys, Hermione and Luna exclaimed about the abrupt weather change. Harry looked around him and outside the window. Inside the living room the cold was increasing, frost began to creep onto the furniture and the floorboards began to become glazed in a thin layer of ice. Everybody's breath then became visible in little puffs of white. Outside, the sky had turned from brightest blue to a murky, iron grey filled with silver clouds which began to shower hailstone and bits of snow. As the weather worsened Harry felt his previous feeling of elation ebb away bit by bit until he was left flailing past his usual depressive thoughts until he felt completely miserable. Left reeling in despair and misery, the weather becoming more wintery and the temperature dropping below freezing Harry realised there could only be one single cause of such abnormal activity. Harry dashed out of the Burrow and into the back garden followed by Ron and Hermione and cries from the others. When Harry entered the garden with his wand aloft he spotted them floating like black angels in the dark sky. Their cloaks like ragged black cloth…a rotting orifice that was provided on what was probably supposed to be a head that was meant to be a mouth…for its Kiss…there were at least twenty of them…hanging in the air, absorbing all happiness and channelling misery back…

The Dementors.


	30. The Third Wizarding World War

Harry dropped his wand and didn't see it as it rolled into a pile of tangled weeds. He couldn't keep a grip on it as his fingers were painfully numb. He could hear his teeth chattering with the cold, his heart seemed to of stopped, his insides began to feel heavy like blocks of ice inside him. Being ignorant of the fog that consumed the daylight that illuminated the Burrow garden, Harry ogled the Dementors as they hovered above him. Their wraith-like figures absorbing every little bit of possible happiness that he had left inside of him. Harry could hear their rattling breaths creating a choir of deathly music. Then, he felt Luna's hand shake him back awake so he realised what was happening. Behind him Harry could hear Victoire crying from Mr and Mrs Weasley's bedroom and also the cries of desperation from Ron and Hermione. Harry then decided to take action. Determined to protect the people he loved and cared for he dropped to the ground, not because of the weakness he felt, but to grab his wand. He tore away the weeds and seized his weapon before jumping back to his feet. Then, as he lifted up his wand he ran, what was his most recent, happiest memory. The birth of Victoire. With this image in his mind he issued a hearty bellow, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" his voice reverberated into the icy air as a gush of silvery light spilled from the tip of his wand. With it formed an animal…a stag…his stag…the stag his father James took each time when he transformed into his Animagus disguise. This personification of his father's stag and the image of a giggling Victoire provided Harry with the strength to withheld his Patronus. The stag trampled over the grass and then began to float and rise into the air to fight the Dementors. However, there were too many of them for Harry's Patronus to fight. There had been originally about twenty but without Harry realising the number had increased and continued to. There was at least now fifty odd Dementors attacking the Burrow. Harry's hope faded and his stag was defeated and disappeared into air. The despair the Dementor's shared with the Burrow's residents saw Harry suffer the worst, his bad experiences in abundance compared to the others. He collapsed backwards onto the grass and temporarily blacked out.

Knowing he had to protect the others, most importantly the innocent new-born Victoire, Harry tried to maintain his strength. Using whatever he had left in him he forced himself back onto his feet, swaying a little, his image slightly blurred. Behind him Ron, Hermione, George, Charlie, Luna and Mr Weasley now had their wand arms raised and trying to produce their own Patronuses. Harry had to help them, none of them had been able to produce a fully fledged Patronus so it was up to Harry to assist them. But he felt too weak…still they did their best…together with their happy memories and love and feeling of togetherness they didn't produce individual animal Patronuses. Instead the silvery light from their wands joined together and spread like a gigantic force field across where the Dementors had begun to swoop down from. Seeing this achievement of deflecting the Dementors back outside the Burrow's borders spurred Harry to gather his thoughts and get to work. He contributed to their force field by shooting up his own field of silver light with a triumphant shout of "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" once more. With this collective shield the fifty odd Dementors fled one by one out of reach. Eventually when all had been cleared the Weasleys, Harry, Luna and Hermione issued large sighs of relief as they ended their individual streams.

"What the bloody hell's going on?!" Ron kicked at the ground in anguish tearing up a clump of grass.

"Do you think this it?!" Luna cried, "The start of the war?!"

Harry knew what Luna speculated had to be true. It was the start of the war. On the same day as the first anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts…the end of the Second Wizarding World War…now it was the Third.

"Are they gone, d'you think?" Charlie wondered for his father to reply.

Mr Weasley stated, "No! If they know where we live and are able to break down our defences it won't just be the Dementors that come to attack us but the Death Eaters too!"

"GET INSIDE!" it was Bill. He'd obviously realised what was happening and had raced downstairs to help. The others in the garden responded immediately by beginning to rush back inside. However something destructive distracted them, inhibiting their movement. In the centre of the garden a vacuum of white light exploded the surface of the ground. With it saw large chunks of mud, earth and grass be flung at high pressures and speeds in multiple directions, cracking other areas of ground or flinging debris into the fleeing clan. As the light had hit the ground with such sheer force the hole it left spat a fury of large flames. Soon enough the grass of the garden lit and soon enough the Burrow's expanse of land set on fire. In dilapidated heaps on the ground near to the ground of the kitchen door were the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and Luna. With the sound of the explosion ringing in his ears, Harry slowly clambered back onto his feet as did the others around him. The explosion had seen Harry be littered in grassy debris and a lot of soot. It also appeared some of his hair was singed and the jacket he wore had been burned into his back. Now with a searing pain between his shoulder blades Harry stood up to look at the damage behind him. The grass was alive with flickering orange flames issuing big clouds of black smoke. However, Harry was surprised he couldn't feel the heat of the blaze in front of him. Yes, he could feel the piercing, white-hot burn on his back but not the fire in front of him. Enchanted flames or not they were bound to have some warmth. But now Harry realised, it was the Dementor's presence which kept him cool. Though he sweated, his perspiration was cold. Now the fifty odd Dementors who had just left the Burrow returned and swept past the inferno to reach the house. With them, Apparated fifteen Death Eaters, armed with wands and daggers. The group consisted solely of some of Onya's ex-followers and waded through the fire, impervious to the flames. As soon as they arrived they fired multiple hexes flying into the wall of the house above the Weasleys, Harry, Luna and Hermione's heads.

Then, as the Death Eaters neared the house in a V-formation, Bill wrenched open the kitchen door for the Weasleys, Luna, Harry and Hermione to rush in. However once they crashed inside the kitchen door was blown apart and catapulted into one of the kitchen surfaces causing it to collapse. When Harry shook wreckage out of his fringe he looked behind him to see the Death Eaters storm into the house and begin to fire spells here and there, exploding parts of the kitchen as they went to fight the Weasleys. Soon enough a mass duelling session began and saw the Weasleys tackle at least two Death Eaters each as well as Dementors which flew into the house. Avoiding a stunning curse that flew over his shoulder, Harry dropped to the ground and lifted his head to see two Death Eaters rush into the living room and begin to scale the staircase. Harry could hear upstairs that Victoire was crying loudly. The Death Eaters had gone to go and kill her, seeing her as an easy target. Harry knowing this, he Apparated upstairs ahead of Mr and Mrs Weasley's door. When he appeared in front of the room, the two Death Eaters had reached the top of the stairs. In anguish at the fact that Harry had beaten them to the room they fired two Killing Curses above his head. On the ground Harry sent one of them toppling backwards down the stairs with a trip jinx, with the other he stunned them through a wall and into Percy's bedroom, unconscious. Harry then bashed down the Weasley parents' room door to see Bill and Fleur guarding Victoire.

"Get out of here!" Harry hollered at them.

"Where to?! We can't go!" Bill cried back.

"Home! To Shell Cottage! Just go! They don't know you live there! NOW! Protect Victoire!" Harry urged them to leave. Fleur replied simply with a nod, Bill sighed as he picked up his daughter from a makeshift cot. Then, with a fleeting wave, Fleur and Bill Disapparated with Victoire held firmly in Bill's arms. Harry was sure as Fleur disappeared that she mouthed the words; "Thank you". After the couple had left with the baby, Harry Apparated back downstairs to avoid more curses and firing some of his own. When Harry reached the back garden he knocked down two Death Eaters and sent ten Dementors flying backwards with a Patronus. In the centre of the garden, whose flames had now mostly died to just a few, saw Ron and Hermione fighting back to back. Nearby was Mr Weasley taking on at least twenty Dementors. After he cleared them away temporarily he shouted to Ron, "Ron! Get Kingsley to send a team of Aurors down here now!"

Ron managed to freeze a Death Eater as he replied, "HOW?!"

"Floo Powder! All the fireplaces were blocked apart from ours! Ours has an instant link to Kingsley's office! Go now!" So, as Mr Weasley shot a Patronus shield at the same flock of Dementors, Ron avoided a ball of flames before scarpering off back to the Burrow in order to contact the Ministry. Harry tried not to follow his friend's footsteps as he backed towards the house and tangled up a Death Eater in a piece of long rope. After some more fighting Ron burst back out of the house bringing a Death Eater down with his fist. Whether he was successful Harry wasn't sure. But then, as the battle continued, it appeared Ron's call for help did work. Soon enough, two dozen Ministry Aurors and Kingsley Shacklebolt himself Apparated in the scorched remains of the garden. They immediately joined the fight, ridding of Dementors and pinning down Death Eaters. Harry left the garden as Kingsley and Charlie sent the Weasleys' old chicken pen smashing into three Death Eaters.

Back in the house Harry helped George wrestle down a visibly insane Death Eater before moving on to the top floor of the house. There, Luna was in mid-battle with a Death Eater on the landing. As the Death Eater punched Luna to the ground he kicked open the door to Ginny's room and was prepared to set it alight. However, Harry somersaulted towards him and jumped onto his back, causing him to collapse to the ground. Then, as Harry stood up and wiped his memory clean of everything, he turned to Luna who was in a crumpled position on the landing carpet. Harry offered her a hand to help her back on her feet, she now owned a burst lip and bruised forehead, half of her skirt had been torn off.

"You alright?" Harry questioned her.

"Never better." Luna lied.

They then gave each other a hasty high-five before dashing back down the spiral staircase, through the partially destroyed but empty living room and into the garden. By the looks of it, most of the Dementors and the Death Eaters had been dispersed of, knocked out or arrested. At least half of the Aurors had been killed but none of the Weasleys or Hermione or Kingsley. Now, the back of the house had its walls cracked, with bricks scattered across the surface of the burnt grass. It seemed the rest of the battle had been redirected to the garden. As a few more spells were fired and two more Aurors were killed, two of the remaining three Death Eaters Disapparated soon followed by the last fourteen Dementors. Now, with only a maimed Death Eater left, writhing in agony on the ground with a severely burnt leg, Kingsley easily pinned him down so he couldn't move. The battle had been so quick, over in a flash, yet so many had died, been injured and probably some fled. They needed information and what the hell was happening and now they had a source, someone to find out everything from. The injured, arrested Death Eater who once fought on behalf of Onya, now lay on the ground with his secrets. What did he know? How had the Death Eaters found out where they were? Why had they attacked ahead of the war? Or was this the beginning of it? Harry didn't know. As he thought these through in his mind, Kingsley dragged the semi-conscious, whimpering Death Eater by the scruff of his neck through the grass and into the kitchen. The Weasleys, Harry, Luna and Hermione followed suit. In the kitchen, Kingsley, seemingly livid, threw the Death Eater on a chair which slid back a little. Then, Kingsley used his wand to tie the Death Eater to the chair before removing Veritaserum from the depths of his robes, unscrewing the cork before forcing the entire contents down the Death Eater's throat. After some gargling and spitting the Death Eater had to swallow the potion before giving a shudder. He was then ready to be interrogated, being able to tell only the truth.

"What's your name?!" Kingsley bellowed in the face of the Death Eater who jumped back in his chair. Then, with a trembling and forced hoarse voice he replied.

"Marcus Flint."

Harry hadn't recognised him at first but now that he knew the man's name he remembered him from his early days at Hogwarts. Marcus Flint, the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team when Harry was in his first year. Marcus was now in his mid-twenties and much skinnier than he used to be, his skin drawn tightly over his bones, his dark eyes protruding out of their sockets. He looked deranged, starved and rather vulnerable.

"Marcus Flint?! From…?!" Ron exclaimed for Hermione to nod serenely.

"So he's telling the truth? That means the Veritaserun's working," Kingsley sighed, "How did you find this family?"

Flint was hesitant in his answer but the potion forced him to reply, "We had an agent in the Ministry that fed us back information…they found out where the Weasleys lived."

"So is this the start of the war, Flint?" Kingsley grilled Flint.

"No…"

"What do you mean, no? You came here with the others and the Dementors to kill Harry Potter and the Weasleys, didn't you?!"

"Yes, but…"

"But what? Did McKinnon send you here or not?!"

Flint shook his head for Kingsley to issue a dark laugh, Ron shot Harry a confused look.

"Then who did?" quizzed Kingsley.

"No-one," Flint muttered, dribbling some excess Veritaserum down his chin, "We broke ranks with McKinnon."

"You thought you'd take the glory of killing Harry yourselves? Take the throne together instead of letting McKinnon or You Know Who do so?"

Flint nodded shakily.

"Where did you get the Dementors?" Charlie interjected aggressively.

"We took them from McKinnon." Flint remarked.

"So, McKinnon has Dementors? Did you take them all? How many does he have?"

"We only took about sixty with us. McKinnon found them hiding in the wilderness of Northern Ireland. He's still got about three-hundred left."

This fact saw half of the room have their jaws dropped in shock. Harry stood reeling the news that McKinnon now had both an army of trained killers but over three hundred Dementors behind him.

"You do know McKinnon will be after you blood because of this?" George stated for Flint to nod jerkily, seeming petrified.

"So when does the war begin?" Ron asked Flint calmly.

"Tomorrow at midnight."

_'Less than thirty six hours away…' _Harry thought. Time was running out to be prepare for battle. Would they be ready to protect the innocent? Put a stop to Voldemort and McKinnon? And more importantly, Onya. Harry still had to make decisions about her and Voldemort but he put these thoughts to the back of his mind as the interview with Flint continued.

"Where are the main battle points?" Kingsley said.

Again, Flint hesitated, still looking frightened, "Britain, Australia and Albania."

Britain was obviously going to be a target for the war, this was where everything had happened and would happen. Harry wasn't sure why McKinnon and Voldemort had chosen the other two destinations and also wondered why more destinations weren't chosen.

"Why Australia and Albania?" Hermione cut in, asking Harry's questions for him.

Flint's voice trembled a little, "The Dark Lord and McKinnon have personal demons with both of the countries. Albania was where the Dark Lord was weak and unable to do anything powerful, in hiding. Australia was where McKinnon was imprisoned, trapped and alone and being tortured."

Harry should of know this. Voldemort and McKinnon wanted to destroy the places that saw them at the most vulnerable to make a point and prove to themselves they will never be so weak again. Britain was just an addition to these personal vendettas, as it was where both of them were born, spread their reigns of terror and where he lived, Harry.

"Where will the fighting happen in these countries? Why aren't there more targets?" Kingsley was agitated.

"In Australia and Albania the main battles will take place in the Wizarding villages near to the Ministry before they try to destroy those governments," the Veritaserum got Flint to say. By now the potion should have been wearing off bit by bit but by the way Flint spoke it seemed like he wanted to reveal what he knew. He wanted them to know when and where the war was going to start like he regretted being a part of any of it, "Britain will see the main battle. It'll move from the Muggle city of London, into Hogsmeade and finally ending at Hogwarts."

Harry had expected this. For McKinnon and Voldemort to kill as many Muggles as possible before leading him to Hogwarts where they'd destroy his first home and turn to kill him one last time…

"Where will the escapees have gone to after today?" Kingsley had jumped from the previous answer to find out as much as he needed.

"On the run, probably." Flint replied shortly.

"Your Veritaserum's stopped working hasn't it Marcus?" Kingsley realised as Flint gave a curt nod, "Thank you. I can see you obviously regret your previous decisions. Yes?"

"I'm sor…" Flint began unexpectedly.

"No," Kingsley spluttered, "Don't apologise. Not everybody makes the right decisions. You've probably just helped save lots of lives. Now get out of here before I arrest you."

Kingsley gestured to the back door with a shaky index finger as Flint got to his feet and ambled out of the kitchen and into the garden. Harry knew Marcus Flint. How he had been a cocky, violent Quidditch player with no morals who'd do anything to win the game. Now he was a broken young man who'd made all the wrong decisions and now had been given a second chance by Kingsley who had allowed him to run and hide.

"What do we do now?" Mrs Weasley said quietly as Harry spotted Flint Disapparate in the corner of his eye.

"Put your security back up first. Then, contact everyone that agreed to help the war effort and tell them to assemble sunset tomorrow. My Aurors will designate them posts at the battle sites. I'll come back here for us to set out to our positions. I've got to go, the Australian and Albanian Ministries need alerting!" Kingsley then swiftly Disapparated leaving the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and Luna. Immediately work began to prepare for the upcoming war. Mr Weasley accompanied by Charlie rushed outside and set up more defensive enchantments then ever in order to prevent any more attacks. Harry quickly broke the news to Mrs Weasley that Bill and Fleur had evacuated back to Shell Cottage in order to protect Victoire and that they would not be returning to fight. If they did, Harry would send them back home again. Only a year ago, Remus and Tonks had abandoned their son Teddy to fight at the Battle of Hogwarts, losing their lives and Teddy his parents. Harry couldn't let such a thing happen again. Harry then joined Ron, Hermione and Luna in writing dozens of letters to the former students and professors of Hogwarts as well as remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix. George helped send off the letters by attaching a wad at a time to the leg of Errol who had been provided a slot in the defensive shield around the house to enter and exit at will. The clumsy owl had also been coated in a charm that meant only the Burrow's occupants could see him, anybody else would see nothing, even the letters hanging from him were invisible to the world. Eventually, all of the letters were sent and the defences set up. Mrs Weasley had made some tea for the family but nobody ate much. The knowledge that they were all to immerse themselves in warfare one more time shadowed them all into depressive states. They had survived once but would they all come out of the other side, alive? Harry wasn't sure such a thing would happen. He speculated on who would live and die as he mindlessly pushed a piece of chicken around his plate with a fork. Eventually, after some mild chatter and speculation and duelling tactics, the Weasley family went to bed much earlier than usual. Harry followed suit but unlike the others was unable to get to sleep. Instead he found himself restlessly fidgeting in his bed, fighting off the temptation to fall into a world of nightmares that awaited him.

As Harry threw himself from one side of the bed to another as flashes of green light and familiar faces dying swept past his eyes, an hour or so passed without sleeping. Then, as the clock passed two in the morning the bedroom door creaked open for none other than Luna to slip into the room on her tip toes. Harry sat up his bed, his duvet lay in a crumpled ball on the floor beside him. He gave Luna a blank, apologetic stare as she perched herself at the end of his bed.

"I'm sorry I woke you." Harry whispered.

Luna shook her head dismissively, "No, no…I was already awake."

"You couldn't sleep either?" Harry wondered.

"Yeah. Nightmares?" Luna asked for Harry to nod, "Same. I hear you, you know? You're not the only one who can never sleep. I've just never come to you."

"You should of done," Harry muttered.

"Never felt comfortable enough. To talk, I mean."

"You know I'm always happy to hear you out."

"Same here…but…I don't know…"

Harry had a sudden feeling of realisation, "Your dad?"

"Every time I try to sleep all I see is him dying over and over again…" Luna said a little weepily.

"You're not the only one." Harry locked eyes with Luna, they gazed at one another sadly.

"I can tell you blame yourself." Luna pointed out.

"I just feel like I could of done something. To stop it. I should of stopped her." Harry was absent-mindedly scratching the back of his hand. On that hand that he scratched was the very faint outline of etched words that read; _'I must not tell lies'_. Ignoring a flashback that concerned the wicked punishments of former professor and Ministry employee; Dolores Umbridge, Harry ogled the fresh puncture on the front of his hand. His scratching now saw his hand bleeding a little. Luna took his hand away to prevent him scratching.

"It wasn't your fault. There wasn't anything you could do. It was Onya that killed my dad. Not you, Harry." Luna sighed rubbing her fingers softly across the punctured skin on Harry's hand.

"I can't forget it though. All of them. I feel responsible for everyone that's died at my feet." Harry now tried to avoid Luna's orb-like eyes.

"Ginny definitely wasn't your fault."

There was a momentary silence.

"I should of protected her."

"You can't blame yourself for everything."

"I can try."  
"Harry you were saving innocent lives and then jumped out of a 100 storey prison into the sea to recover her body. You can't say you didn't do anything." She was right. Though Harry was determined to be guilty as he was continually wracked by his self-despair, he had to accept it. He had tried his best to save Ginny. And not just her but some of the others too. Harry had tried to stop Onya killing Xenophilius, hadn't he?

"I miss her too, you know." Luna interrupted Harry's thoughts.

"I didn't doubt that you did." Harry replied a little too sharply.

"I know. But I thought we could talk?" Luna wanted to talk about Ginny. Each time Harry had been involved in a conversation about the love of his life he felt himself grow weak and disorientated. Just the mention of Ginny's name brought Harry to the verge of tears.

"All I can say is that I miss her." Harry murmured, Luna gave him an empathetic look.

"It's okay, if you can't talk…there's no pressure to do so."

"I know but…" Harry didn't know what to say so decided to just sit quietly against his headboard, the words didn't even bother to form in his mind. Instead it was all just a haze.

"She was my first friend you know?" Luna said.

"Really?" Harry exhaled.

"Yeah. Nobody else would go near me. The weird girl," Harry went to deflect this statement but Luna waved it off, "She was so kind to me. My best friend. I couldn't even believe it that I had a best friend never mind the rest of you." Harry suddenly remembered the paintings that had adorned Luna's bedroom walls. Portraits of himself, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville surrounded by gold chains that spelt _'Friends'_. Harry wondered whether those paintings survived the Death Eater attack months previously. It was highly doubtful.

"She was amazing wasn't she?" Harry garbled, "I don't think I can pick out one fault. She was beautiful, intelligent, brave, funny…" Hearing himself say such things saw Harry jump a little aback. It was the first time he had confirmed the reasons for his love for Ginny aloud.

"I know. You two were perfect together." Luna smiled. Harry replied with a slight chuckle.

"We were?"

"Of course. Only an idiot would say any different. So much alike…a magical couple. You two would do anything to protect one another. Wouldn't you?"

What Luna said was right. Harry would of done anything for Ginny. The number of times they had risked their lives for each other was immeasurable.

"Yeah…" Harry nodded.

"She'd fight tomorrow," Luna began, "On the front line. She'd do anything to be there. And she'd fight to protect anyone in harm's way, whether it be friend, family or stranger. She was so brave last year."

Harry remembered how Ginny had disobeyed her mother and father's orders and joined the Battle, even fighting the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Tomorrow isn't helping me sleep either." Harry complained.

"I don't think any of us are looking forward to it."

"More people are going to die aren't they?" Harry's question saw Luna look down at her lap. Harry knew her answer. _Yes. _She then lifted her head back up and avoided answering the previous question.

"Do you think Aberforth will be there?" Luna wondered. Harry's last memories of Aberforth saw Albus Dumbledore's elder brother fighting half a dozen Death Eaters in the Hogwarts courtyard. The last Harry heard of Aberforth was that he had gone into temporary hiding until the heat of war settled enough for him to return to Hogsmeade. With everything that had been happening in the past year Harry doubted the bar man would have been back at his pub.

"I don't know. He's been hiding since the war ended. But he might come out to help." Harry guessed. He wasn't sure, not at all.

"To think. Our old friends…we're reuniting in another war. Not exactly the happiest of circumstances to meet up in." Luna contemplated with a sad look in her eyes. It was true. Their old friends…they were finally seeing them again but in the wrong circumstances. They should be meeting up somewhere homely to enjoy each others' company, not be hiding in the rubble of their old school ducking Killing Curses.

"That's true." Harry agreed.  
"Talking's working, Harry," Harry shot Luna a bemused expression as she continued, "I'm feeling tired."

Harry felt emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted but he knew that he'd be unable to sleep the night through. Luna most likely could. She seemed to be able cope with most things.

"How do you do it?" Harry queried.

"Do…?"

"Cope."

Luna took hold of the hand that had Umbridge's punishment that had left Harry scarred for the rest of his life, "To be honest. I don't."

"But you always look so…in control...?"

"It's an act, Harry. I'm not the same person I used to be."

For what felt like the millionth time that night Harry knew Luna was right. She wasn't like she used to be. The Luna Harry remembered and liked best was care-free, optimistic, happy, indifferent to others' opinions and eccentric. The Luna Harry had been faced with recently had been more serious, had the tendency to cry more frequently and did not show off her oddness at all. He missed that Luna.

"I want to be myself again." She said.

"I want you back too," Harry affirmed, "Maybe, after all of this is over with…you'll be back? To you?" Harry wanted Luna back to her old self.

"Let's hope so. And you too, Harry." She inclined her head with a small smile. Harry then took Luna into a hug before they separated and she got to her feet.

"Follow me." Luna then gingerly hopped to the bedroom door and Harry, after some hesitation, followed, onto the landing and then through the door of Ginny's bedroom where Luna slept. Harry hadn't been in that room for some time but still remembered every detail about it. As in entered the room and gave Luna a puzzled look he admired the room afore him. Ginny's bed had lay untouched ever since her demise. Mrs Weasley couldn't face removing and washing the covers and banned anybody else from doing so. She was unable to face the fact that her only daughter would be unable to sleep in the bed one more time. So, the duvet was still screwed up like Ginny had left it, the imprint of her head still on the surface of her pillow. How could Luna sleep in the room with the memory of Ginny being just in front of her bed.

"Why are you showing me this?" Harry's questioned lingered in the silence for a moment.

"Because when you think about Ginny you think about the corpse at Azkaban. Not the girl who loved you. My friend. Our Ginny." Harry wasn't sure what Luna meant by this.

"I'm confused."  
"Sleep in there tonight." Luna gestured to Ginny's bed.

"What?"

"The bed bears her imprint. The way she smelt, the way she slept…it might just be a bed but it was her bed. Pretend she's with you. It'll help you sleep…I assure you…" Now he understood so he nodded. Harry gave Luna a weak smile as he walked towards the bed.

"Goodnight, Harry." Luna then slithered under her own quilt as Harry slipped into Ginny's bed. Nobody had slept in this bed for so long, it was stone cold. He adjusted his sleeping position and pulled the duvet to his neck and sniffed. Through his nostrils Harry smelt Ginny…her favourite perfume made the bed emanate a sweet scent of strawberries…Ginny…

Harry thought he slept well for what was promised to be another restless sleep. Being between Ginny's unused sheets and the feeling that she was there with him guided him into a soothing sleep. There were no nightmares just a continuing array of moving pictures that showed Ginny. But the pictures followed the time Harry had known Ginny. From the time Harry saved her in the Chamber of Secrets to their first kiss, the dreaming ended with her death. Onya's Killing Curse. The fall from the corridor. The swim in the sea. Dragging the body out. Harry saw it all. Then, he woke up.

He hadn't been sleeping too long. From what Ginny's alarm clock read Harry had been asleep a mere three hours. It was only five in the morning but he was wide awake. For once he had awoken without sweating, screaming or crying and nobody was awake to comfort him. He sat up in Ginny's bed and spotted Luna was actually already awake as she was absent from her bed. Harry then slipped out of the bed and onto the landing where he bumped into Hermione who was seemingly wide awake.

Harry began to explain why he was exiting Ginny's bedroom when Hermione said, "Don't worry! Luna told me!"

"Where is she?" Harry mumbled.

"In the living room, why?"

"Just wondered." There was then an awkward silence as Hermione looked at Harry sympathetically.

"I, err, hope you're feeling better?" Hermione didn't know what to say to Harry. Harry, in his head, was wondering whether he had recently shown signs that he wasn't feeling well. Because in his head, he wasn't well, not well at all.

"I kinda guess so." Harry said as Hermione placed a soft hand on his arm.

"Don't be scared to tell me anything, Harry. We're best friends right?" Harry nodded a little jerkily as Hermione issued a small weak smile.

"I'm not sure whether I can go through with this tonight." Harry said aloud. The words had barely formed in his mind before he said them to Hermione who seemed to of understood what he said. She most likely already had the foreknowledge of Harry's dread.

"Neither can I, but we must." Hermione told him firmly with a shudder of her wrist which shook Harry slightly.

"I know. It's just….I haven't made my decision yet." Harry whispered the last part of what he said.

"You haven't?" Hermione replied in a hushed voice.

"No, I can't think straight. There's too much going on up here," Harry tapped his skull with a finger which Hermione's eyes followed.

"I understand but you've got to do it sometime today. Do you want mine and Ron's help?" Harry didn't want her and Ron to help provide him with the ammunition to murder someone in cold blood. Though it was to be for a good cause Harry had never intentionally taken another life before. This would be his first time.

"Up to you. I don't really want you to be involved in this but…"

"When has working alone ever helped you, Harry? Don't we work better as a team?" Harry knew what Hermione said was right. He'd never been unable to succeed in any of the dangerous missions he'd taken on in the past eight years without them. This was Hermione's way of telling Harry that she and Ron would help him to kill whoever he chose, no matter what objections he held.

"Fine." Harry replied after some thought.

"Come downstairs. I'll make you some breakfast, yeah?" Hermione's offer saw Harry follow her down into the kitchen, past a smiling Luna, to prepare Harry something to eat.

By seven o'clock that morning, Harry, Hermione and Luna had breakfasted and now spectated the Weasleys take their own breakfasts. In the kitchen Harry, Hermione, Luna and Ron sat facing one another at the table as Ron ate his cereal one spoonful at a time.

"What's the plan for today does anybody know?" Ron quizzed the others.

"Your mum's having us pack supplies for tonight. Then, I guess, we just wait for Kingsley and the Aurors." Hermione said dropping her head onto Ron's shoulder to see him place an arm round the back of her chair. Harry and Ginny used to do this. The thought of it saw Harry look down and take an interest in the wood grain of the kitchen table.

"Do you think the Muggles will of evacuated London?" Luna evidently seemed concerned they hadn't been protected from the war which was to concentrate on their extermination.

"Let's hope so. Kingsley probably contacted the Muggle Prime Minister first thing." Harry affirmed. He was sure of the fact that Kingsley would alert the Muggle world first and that the government there would release some propaganda to falsify the reasoning behind an evacuation.

"Course he will of," Hermione said as Ron squeezed her hand lovingly, "Erm, Luna could you give us a minute please?" Hermione said unexpectedly as Luna exited the room happily for Ron's face to display confusion.

"What's up?" he pondered.

"Harry hasn't decided what to do yet." Hermione spoke on Harry's behalf leaving the latter with a hanging jaw.

"You know how I stand on this."

Harry didn't have to have Ron explain his stand on the decision because it was obvious. He wanted Harry to let Onya become the Disciple and then kill her in order to return Ginny, and the others.

"We might not be able to take that risk though Ron, remember that." Hermione stated for Ron to remove his hand from hers and drop his arm.

"She's my sister!" he cried.

"And she was my girlfriend!" Harry suddenly responded, making Ron's succeeding outburst cease.

"Listen to Harry, Ron." Hermione told her lover.

Ron sat back in his chair, a glum look plastered on his freckled face, "Well?"

"Letting Onya become the Disciple is a risk. A risk we might not be able to afford to let go wrong because if I die no-one else can stop her. Then, this world will be left to die!" Harry slammed his fists onto the table in anguish as realisation mulled in his brain.

"But maybe it's a risk worth taking? Fine, don't kill Onya, as obviously killing her is something you can't do on a moral level, so kill Voldemort."

"That's still taking the risk of letting Onya become the Disciple. Plus, Voldemort will be harder to kill than her!"

"If it's such a risk then prevent her becoming the Disciple!"

"I can't leave the souls trapped though?!"

"Exactly. You have to let her become the Disciple. It's just a decision of who to kill, how, when…"

Harry had no idea. Voldemort was an experienced killer with a gigantic vendetta against Harry. Onya was a young, athletic assassin poised to impress. Harry knew he had to make a decision of who to kill but it seemed impossible to decide. So, he decided to leave his dilemma behind until further notice.

"I'll choose when it gets to it." Harry sighed.

"Gets to what, Harry?" Hermione probed.

"The last stand." What Harry said left Ron looking puzzled and Hermione rather worried.

"You're going to wait until everyone's dead and the battle's over?" Ron spat.

"No. That's not what I meant…"

"Then what did you mean? When're you going to decide who to kill?!"

"I don't know!"

"Well you better hurry up and decide Harry because people are going out tonight and putting their lives on the line for your sake!"

"I know that! I can't stop them though?! I will make the decision just not now, I can't think!"

Ron shook his head disappointedly, "You're pathetic, you know that right?"

Harry gulped. Paranoia, stress and grief seemed to be turning his best friend against him. Ron was known for being unable to cope with such situations very well and this was another example of he failed to deal with the concept of war and the loss of lives being imminent.

"This isn't a time to argue like children!" Hermione cut in.

"Yeah, well, Harry's gambling with peoples' lives Hermione!" Ron retorted, his fist clenched.

"I'm sorry I can't make a split decision on who to murder first! I'm not exactly a killer am I Ron?" Harry kicked away his chair as he stood up and stared at his friend with a dark look.

"Oh I don't know!" Ron copied Harry, "You've let plenty of people die just to save your own skin!"

"You know that's not true!"

"Oh yeah?! I beg to differ! Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, Snape, Fred…! They were all slaughtered protecting you!"

"RON! You know what you're saying isn't true! Harry had to survive otherwise…!" Hermione interjected.

"Otherwise what?! To beat him?! You Know Who?! He's back though isn't he?! All those people died for nothing! And its just going to happen again! More people are going to die tonight Harry! Men, women, children, Muggles! And because of what?! You!" And with that rant, Ron stormed out of the kitchen and into the garden to not be seen until later that day. Harry and Hermione were left stunned by Ron's sudden outburst. They decided to leave him to his own devices while he settled and saw sense. Instead, they went to help Mrs Weasley pack supplies for what was expected to be a night of waiting for the war to begin. According to Mr Weasley, Kingsley had made the assumption no definite time had been confirmed for a battle to commence. Instead, they were all to sit and wait from midnight onwards until something occurred. Then, they would take arms and fight to protect the Muggles, Muggle-borns and anybody unlucky enough to be in harm's way.

By late afternoon, they had packed some food and water supplies as well as extra clothing and a dozen sleeping bags all into large rucksacks. As the sun set over the Burrow garden, the Weasleys (Ron included), Harry, Hermione and Luna congregated in the living room to patiently wait for Kingsley and the Aurors. As the clock on the mantelpiece chimed seven o'clock, they had hurriedly dined on sandwiches and Pumpkin Juice, as one by one the Aurors, along with Kingsley, Apparated into the front room, surpassing the new defences.

"We ready to go?" Kingsley slurred in his deep, booming voice.

The Weasleys, Hermione and Luna responded with nods, "Before we do, Kingsley, did you get to the Muggle Prime Minister?"

Kingsley turned to Harry with a serene expression, "Yes. London has been evacuated. Nobody has been left behind."

"Where're we going to there?" Luna supplicated.

"Whether they know London's empty or not, everything's bound to happen in the city centre. A third of us will be taking post in buildings around Piccadilly Circus." Harry had heard of Piccadilly Circus before though he'd never been before, but the Dursleys had. Harry knew the Circus was the busy, city centre of London and that his relatives had gone there numerous times leaving Harry with Mrs Figg. He'd seen pictures of the place. Packed with Muggles, bright lights, cars…had that all now been removed and all was left was inanimate buildings to fall down into piles of rubble as a Wizarding war reigned?

"I remember going there as a kid," Hermione sighed nostalgically.

"So, are we ready to go, now?" Kingsley asked them. No confirmations were made, just the picking up of rucksacks and checking that wands were secured in pockets and robes. Then, Kingsley took out a grimy, empty tankard and placed it upon Mrs Weasley's usually spotless carpet. As Kingsley mouthed; "Portus!" the tankard emitted a ghostly blue light as the wizards and witches placed a finger each on the tankard. Then, with an almighty swing, Harry felt himself hoisted off his feet like there was a hook pulling from around the navel. As he span in a circular motion at an accelerating high speed he saw blurred colours and shapes whizz by his eyes. Eventually, the Portkey stopped dead and they fell to their stomachs onto gravelly concrete.

Harry opened his eyes and slowly got to his feet where he realised he was standing in the middle of a road. His instinct told him to rush onto the nearby pavement but as he looked around him he noticed not a single moving car was in sight. The only moving things that were in the centre of Piccadilly Circus were the wizards and witches who Harry had just travelled with. The only cars that adorned the streets were those that had been parked recently and now been left, abandoned by their owners. The street lamps, traffic lights and illuminated advertisements were all lit up as they would usually be in the centre. The only sign of life Harry spotted as the group moved to the pavement, was a black cat which was hidden under a car. The wind emitted a low, continuous whistle which made Harry's hairs on the back of his neck, stand on end. The centre had been completely abandoned and with it was left an eerie scene.

"Let's get into here, quickly as possible!" Kingsley ordered them all with a swift turn to a nearby building which Harry recognised as the London Pavilion. As they entered the large entrance Harry remembered the place was a shopping centre. Down the sides of the large building's interior were rows of shops and a space in between for shoppers to walk through on a polished concrete floor. But Harry didn't have time to focus on the interior of the shopping centre but instead anticipated the looming war. That night would mark the beginning of a third Wizarding World War…and it would start in London city centre.

"Now we're going to take up camp in here until the war starts!" Kingsley declared, "They should be arriving sometime after midnight, so be ready to fight when the clock turns twelve! Now I assume we've all brought something to sleep in while people take guard on shifts, yes?!" They all nodded. "Now Jaghorn and Dorkling you're on patrol first so step back outside and keep guard of this building! You'll see the others around you do it too!"

Jaghorn, who was a surly looking, short Auror, took with him, a gangly, petrified Dorkling outside with him in front of the Pavilion's doors, their wands aloft. As Kingsley began to bark orders to his Aurors and get the Weasleys to organise their supplies, Harry spotted pairs of Aurors dotted around the entrances of other buildings. More of them plus volunteers were probably cooped up inside the buildings laying out sleeping bags and sharing out food and water, their wands constantly at their sides. From what Harry heard Kingsley say, Jaghorn and Dorkling would swap with two other Aurors in a couple of hours time but until then the others could relax in the foyer of the shopping centre. After half an hour of squabbling, dividing and continuing paranoia, Harry was sat back against a cold wall in the Pavilion staring out into the lit city centre. After an hour or so of silence in the Pavilion entrance, Ron slid down the wall beside Harry to speak to him. It was the first time the two had come face to face since their argument. Ron gave Harry a weak smile but Harry could hear his friend's teeth chatter with nervousness and fear.

"Don't apologise." Harry told him sternly.

"I was going to. I just assumed the matter would be resolved, mate." Ron said.

"Then it is."

Ron gave a heavy sigh, "We shouldn't be arguing like that. Hermione was right."

"When is she ever wrong?"

"Exactly."

Harry patted Ron on his shoulder to try and calm down his shaking, "Scared?"

"Bloody hell, yeah."

"Same, here."

"Do you think they know we're here?"

"Who? The Death Eaters? Maybe."

"D'you think we stand a chance?" Ron's question lingered in the air.

"Aha," Harry laughed nervously, "I'd rather not speculate…"

Ron gave a sarcastic chuckle to add, "Didn't think you would."

"When's it our shift?"

"Sometime after midnight I think. The first two should be swapping about now."

Harry popped his head above Ron's to see Jaghorn and Dorkling finishing up their shift outside the doors to swap with another two Aurors who exited the building. However, the Aurors never finished swapping guard shifts on the London Pavilion.

BOOM! CRASH!

The Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain exploded with such force that it catapulted large chunks of concrete and a spraying of water shooting in multiple directions. The debris from the fountain itself cracked the surface of the roads, killed two Aurors by crushing and several cars were flung into the walls, battered, their glass shattered onto the ground. With the detonation of the monument, a singular vacuum of bright, green light struck the centre of the monument remains before jetting off into several directions. The rays of the killing curse that redirected from the initial spell saw all the Aurors guarding the buildings be killed in an instant. The last of Jaghorn, Dorkling and the two other Aurors outside of the Pavilion was there limp corpses be slammed against the see through glass of the doors like rag dolls. As their bodies rolled into a blanket of broken glass a ring of fire dropped from the sky and expanded across the perimeter of the Circus. Now, flames encircled the city centre and blocked the doorways back into the streets. With the exits to the buildings now on fire, the remaining Aurors, Kingsley, the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and Luna were stranded inside the Pavilion foyer. As they got to their feet after ducking for cover at the explosion, Kingsley failed to recover the bodies of the four Aurors. He had tried to rush into the building inferno but was pushed aback by another Auror. In the orangey-red haze Harry spotted Dorkling's final expression of shock plastered on his face as his anatomy set alight.

"Harry get up!" Ron screamed yanking Harry to his feet properly by using the scruff of his neck, his face now sweating and pale with fear. Harry, now trembling violently, fell back into the wall and removed his wand from the back of his jeans. In the centre of the Circus two big groups of wizards and witches Apparated with the wands fully aloft. Amongst them included Lord Voldemort, Jeremiah McKinnon, Onya Lewis and Draco Malfoy as well as all of their main minions such as Bellatrix Lestrange.

This was the beginning of the war. The two armies had arrived at Piccadilly Circus, knowing of the Aurors being there and trying to wipe them out, had now begun to wage battle in the middle of London. As soon as they touched ground the Death Eaters, with their wands aloft, struck up instant duels. From inside the Pavilion, Harry saw Voldemort send a Killing Curse straight over McKinnon's head as one of Onya's ex-followers pinned Bellatrix down to the floor with a dagger to her throat.

Kingsley fired a gust of wind at the flames guarding the exit to the building, separating the flames. Kingsley then mouthed something Harry couldn't hear over the raucous of spells being fired in the Circus. The Aurors were now entwined in duels with the two battling armies as the Aurors in the shopping centre filed out to join them. Then, after a reproachful look at Ron, Hermione and Luna, Harry followed the others outside with a sprint. He jumped over the dead bodies at the exit before joining the fray of war that now tore London city centre apart. Cars were burnt and thrown, windows were smashed, buildings damaged, street lamps collapsed, street signs bent, illuminations burnt out, people being tortured and killed.

Harry didn't know what to do. As he ambled into the battle he tripped over a chunk of rubble and his feet crunched as they crossed a blanket of broken glass. Multicoloured jets of light flew past him, peoples' screams struck his ear drums. Then, there was a ball of flames heading his way like a meteor. Harry just ogled it, admired its beauty as it descended towards him. He didn't want to move. If the flames killed him it'd all be over. He wouldn't have to make any decisions, he'd be free…

"GET DOWN!" Ron grabbed Harry round the waist and threw him down to the ground with him, narrowly just avoiding the ball of flames which burst open the pavement before sizzling into smoke. Nearby was a blackened car which Ron pulled Harry behind and sat next to him, "Are you mad?!"

Harry shrugged. Ron gave him a wild look, mopping sweat off of his brow and ignoring a bleeding fist.

"It's time to make your decision, Harry!" Ron urged Harry who looked at him like he'd said something blasphemous.

"I can't! Not yet!"

"Why not?!" Ron gesticulated.

"Onya doesn't even know how to become the Disciple yet!"

"And?!"

"I thought you wanted her to become it! Bring back Ginny!"

"So you've decided then haven't you?"

"No…but yeah…no! I can't…!"

Ron tugged roughly on Harry's singed jacket, "No matter how much I want her to come back, she'd do the same thing now Harry! Save the innocent! Too many are dying already and the war's only just beginning!" Harry peered over Ron's head to see scattered near the remains of the memorial, a littering of dead Aurors and Death Eaters. In the centre of the battle Voldemort slit the throat of a smallish Auror with his wand as Onya battled two at one time. They were both there. Distracted. Easy targets.

"I know but…!"

"But nothing, Harry! "

Harry knew what Ron was saying was correct in some way. Killing Onya or Voldemort could possibly cease the fighting, but it could also make it incredibly worse, "What if things escalate by killing one of them?"

"I don't…"

"McKinnon! He'll still be alive! I'd have to kill him too! He's too dangerous! Killing Voldemort or Onya will crown McKinnon the victor! He'll come after me and take the world as his own!"

The realisation hit Ron, "You've got to kill him too?!"

"Ron, I'm going to have to kill them all?!"

There was a silence between them as they shared a solemn stare, "All three of them…?"

"I have to."

"Who first?"

Harry hadn't thought about this. He realised he'd have to kill all three of them but still the decision lay on who to kill first. Killing Voldemort first would see the souls collected be lost in limbo but Onya wouldn't be able to become the Disciple and all the resurrected would cease to exist again. Killing Onya first would stop her becoming the Disciple and the collected souls would pass over but the resurrected would remain. Killing McKinnon would be removing the leader of the opposing Death Eater army, dispiriting them and seeing them collapse. Harry had made his decision.

"Voldemort!"

Harry jumped up from behind the car hastily followed by Ron. Harry had made his decision knowing he had to make sacrifices to those dead in order to prevent that list from growing. Killing Voldemort first would stop Onya becoming powerful and remove the most dangerous Death Eater soldiers but then Harry would have to kill McKinnon straight after in order to prevent him declaring the worlds his. When Harry stood, he spotted Voldemort and ran straight for him…as fast as he could…dodging the array of stunning and unforgiveable curses… striking down Death Eaters as he sprinted…his heart beat faster and faster…it pounded in his ears, deafening him…his brain hurt…his breathes were in an abundance and more frequent…cold sweat slivered down his face…Voldemort was so close. Harry raised his wand to where Voldemort's head was. The wizards and witches surrounding Harry seemed not to notice him as he arched the wand over his head. Voldemort, after slaying what looked like a teenage Auror, turned Harry's way as the latter came to a halt. Harry stood in the remains of the monument, his right foot in a pool of crimson. Voldemort now faced Harry whose wand was pointed between the wizard's eyes. At the sight of Harry, Voldemort froze and his smug expression of triumph faltered. The moment Harry had been dreading and yet had dreamt about for so long. The moment he would murder Lord Voldemort.

Harry's mouth formed the words but he didn't hear them. All he heard was the whistling of the wind in the cold summer's night as a ray of bright, green light burst from the tip of his wand…


	31. The Revelations of Eternity

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Harry repeated, as his hearing began to work again, in frustration before collapsing onto the cracked concrete surface. As his face rested on the cold ground he saw the jet of green light he had just created dissolve into nothing as it passed through the air. The first had done the same as it's target Disapparated into the night. Voldemort had known what Harry was to do as soon as he had turned to face the teen. Voldemort had narrowly escaped his death by what was less than a single second. However, it appeared to be all part of the plan. Kingsley had told them that the battle was planned to move from London to Hogsmeade and into Hogwarts. Stage one in London was almost complete, Voldemort had manoeuvred to Hogsmeade Village as Harry's killing curse tore through the air. Harry, ignoring the ongoing duels around him, lay curled in a ball weeping at what he had just failed to do. He'd cast his first ever Killing Curse, and at Voldemort and had missed. He'd produced an Unforgiveable Curse, one he knew he'd have to use soon enough but the shock of threw Harry into a state similar to that caused by a Dementor's presence. He felt emotionally and physically drained. He felt lifeless and couldn't move as his cried out his inner despair at what he had not done. Voldemort had to die. He had failed to kill him. Now the side-effects of usage of the curse had made him mentally weak, exhausted…as Harry clumsily clambered to his feet he swayed and saw flashes of multiple deaths in his mind's eye. But instead of seeing the true murderers Harry saw himself. It wasn't Bellatrix that killed Sirius, it was him. It wasn't Snape that ended Dumbledore's life, it was him. It wasn't Onya who tore Xenophilius' throat out, it was him. It wasn't Voldemort that had slain his parents but it was him…

"HARRY!" It was Hermione. Harry switched back on and resumed what he thought was normal behaviour for the situation. He turned to face Hermione who ran towards him. Her face was scratched down one side, her bottom lip split and the left arm of her jacket burnt off, leaving a red and black ring round her forearm. She gave Harry a petrified glance, "We've gotta move to Hogsmeade! Most have already gone!"

Harry looked around him and saw what Hermione had been saying was true. Three quarters of the Aurors and Death Eaters had disappeared leaving at least thirty of each still fighting, still yet to leave to go to the next location. Harry saw in the distance, Ron had tackled Lucius Malfoy, Luna and Charlie fought back to back against a circle of Onya's ex-followers. The majority of doors and windows on the shops had been smashed and coated most of the ground with a thin layer of crushed glass bits. A bus shelter had caved in, several cars had been upturned, burnt and crushed. The remains of the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain now lay around parts of Piccadilly Circus, the cause of various large splinters on the ground surface. Several lampposts had been uprooted and street lamps had been launched into the sides of buildings. Various parts of the square were on fire, the large advertisement illuminations had fallen down and burnt out. Dotted all around were corpses of various witches and wizards Harry didn't recognise. None of the main Death Eaters had died and neither had Kingsley, the Weasleys, Hermione and Luna. So many innocent, dead…

"Harry Potter!" somebody screeched. Harry whizzed around on his heels to see an insane, tangle-haired Death Eater followed by four others sprint towards him, their wands held aloft. Harry later knew he should of just Disapparated with Hermione right there and then but instead he grabbed her hand and they ran. Survival was the only thing on their minds and they didn't think of the more logical thing to do when try to escape those Death Eaters. George, who was nearby when Harry and Hermione came close to him, had just finished off a Death Eater when he spotted those chasing Harry and Hermione and on instinct he followed them. Together, the three of them were chased whilst ducking and dodging Killing Curses reached a relatively undamaged car. Harry could see from a distance that it was unlocked and a key was dangling in the exhaust. He knew he had to get away from the Death Eaters and fast before they caught up with them. So, Harry wrenched the driver seat door open and gestured for Hermione and George to jump into the back which they did.

"HARRY WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!" Harry, who was turning the key in the ignition so that the car revved, found this is a ridiculous question. Hermione had decided to get into the car with questioning it, so why now? The Death Eaters were metres from having a clear shot at killing them. Harry had to do something about it.

"Driving?!" The engine roared into life as Harry quickly jammed in his seat belt and put his foot onto the accelerator as hard as he could and the car shot off. Harry felt his seat jolt violently as the car rode off the kerb and onto the road. As Hermione issued a strangled cry of shock and George swore crudely Harry looked at the speedometer as the car accelerated up the road. It surpassed thirty miles per hour easily, slipping into forty then fifty…!

"Harry, turn!" Hermione's indication was undertaken as Harry realised the car was set to surmount the pavement so he turned the wheel hastily with all his strength so that he turned right down another road. In the wing mirror he realised that the four Death Eaters who had been chasing them now flew behind them like Voldemort had done that one time in the sky battle to the Burrow all those months ago. They accelerated at a similar rate to the car, gliding above the concrete, their wands aloft and now firing curses in the car's direction. In the back seat George and Hermione ducked to avoid the shattering of glass in the back window. A curse had blown a hole in the car that saw the two in the back now fire back their own spells at the flying Death Eaters. In the front, Harry swerved from one side of the road to the other in a desperate attempt to lose the Death Eaters. Harry had evidently never driven any vehicle before had seen them being driven by others on numerous occasions. Uncle Vernon Dursley and his precious car, the Weasleys and their blue Ford Anglia, the Knight Bus…Harry had seen something there that was significant in driving…Gears! After driving for a while he had seen drivers alter the gear being used! So, with that in mind, Harry rammed the gear handle down from first into second easing the continuing acceleration of the car. Harry continued this regular change in gear as he become more comfortable and better skilled at taking the car around the bends and cleverly avoiding Killing Curses and various other hexes from the flying Death Eaters.

"Harry we need to lose them!" Hermione cried.

Inspiration hit him. Harry had managed to drive all the way back near to the centre of Piccadilly Circus, and near to the remains of the monument and the last duellers, was the stairway entrance to the London Underground. The steps lead down underneath the pavement and with a wide enough berth for the car to fit through, Harry accelerated the car towards it. Faster, the adrenaline pumping through his veins! Then, the car flew over the first few steps before clattering onto them noisily and scraping the bars on either side of the walls. After some damage to the walls and railings the car managed to smash its way down the steps and into the London Underground shortly followed by the flying four Death Eaters. As the flimsy car bounced onto the concrete floor it rammed straight into board full of timings for the trains, its glass shattered, its metal frame knocked out the windscreen and dented the bonnet. The car had come to a halt and now the Death Eaters had dropped back to the ground with sly grimaces on their faces as they lifted their wands. On the train track was an abandoned train partway through one of the tunnels. Harry wrenched open the car door and made George and Hermione follow him as he raced towards the train. As they sprinted they shot spells behind them at the Death Eaters who chased them onto the train. Once Harry blew open the doors to the train and the other two clambered in too the Death Eaters caught up and accessed the train as well. Soon enough the seven were immersed in a duel which saw the trio of friends back up towards the controls compartment. As seats were blown up and windows shattered Harry, as the compartment door was blown off its hinges by one of the Death Eaters, fell into where the train would usually be driven. As Hermione and George battled three of the Death Eaters, one of them slipped into the compartment with Harry. Harry fired a stunning spell that went awry and struck a few buttons on the console which lit up. The Death Eater then punched Harry hard in the stomach so that he collapsed on top of some more buttons and yanked down a lever, suddenly the train lurched and began moving.

"Oh, oh!" Harry exclaimed as he ducked a Killing Curse and slammed the Death Eater into some more controls that saw the train speed up, more and more! The Death Eater Harry had assaulted now lay unconscious on the compartment floor. So, as the train accelerated, Harry went to help George and Hermione who'd knocked out one of their Death Eaters. Two remained and with the combined effort of the three of them, Harry, George and Hermione finally managed to stun the other two. It took an exchange of various curses which left the trio battered. Hermione now owned a broken cheekbone with some bruising, George's hole in the head had began to bleed and he had a long cut down his neck. Harry felt a black eye forming under his right eye, a long stinging cut down his arm, his shoulder had dislocated and two of his teeth were missing. After the four Death Eaters were finally out cold, George realised the train's speed.

"Harry, what've you done?!" he bellowed.

"We fell into some of the controls! It just keeps getting faster!" he replied with a mouthful of blood.

Hermione rushed to one of the windows at the front of the train before screaming hysterically, "We've got to get out of here! You've diverted the train into a dead end!"

Harry looked outside, from what he saw the train he was in was now pushing its way forward into a brick wall. And at that speed Harry realised they'd strike the wall in seconds and would die from the impact, so he grabbed Hermione and George's hand as the face of the train touched the surface of the wall. Then, as the train crashed into the wall and some minor explosions began from fuel leaks, Harry turned on his heel and Disapparated with the other two as the train abruptly exploded into a inferno.

Seconds later the trio were picking themselves off of the remains of the monument in the centre of Piccadilly Circus to find only a few remaining wizards. These were not fighting, but waiting. They included Luna, Ron and Mrs Weasley who stood calmly yet injured in the centre, seemingly awaiting the trio's return.

"Where the hell of you been?!" Ron hollered at Harry, Hermione and George as they limped towards the small group in the centre which consisted mostly of Aurors.

"We were chased!" George then swore crudely to which Mrs Weasley replied;

"George!"

"Where is everyone?" Hermione wondered.

"Moved on to the next battle site…Hogsmeade and Hogwarts." Luna replied.

"Were you waiting for us?" Harry asked.

"No. We thought you'd gone already. We're waiting for the all clear to Apparate into Hogsmeade without instant death," Mrs Weasley explained.

Harry issued a hesitant nod as a streak of red light flashed up in the air. The signal for the all clear. So, the Aurors, the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and Luna joined hands in a long line to Apparate. After several moments they materialised in the middle of a street in Hogsmeade Village. The street appeared absent of anything moving. Harry noticed half of the shops were either still closed or boarded up from the fire. Near to the group a jet of green light flew by and suddenly Harry could hear the raucous of war from just around the corner. There were cries of incantations, the swishing of cloaks, the whizzing of curses, the shatter of glass, the crunch of bone and building breakage, sobs and screams, chants and profanities. A foul stench of blood, sweat and tears made Harry's eyes sting as he took out his wand again. War had officially begun.

"Harry!" Harry recognised the voice as soon as it shouted his name. Harry span around to see none other than Rubeus Hagrid, the half-giant, former Gamekeeper and professor of Care of Magical Creatures who first told Harry he was a wizard. After introducing Harry into the wizarding world, Hagrid became his dependable elder friend who he could trust his life with. A father-figure that had never left him yet. And behind his massive stature stood a gang of other teachers and some pupils who all used to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There stood Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, Poppy Pomfrey, Horace Slughorn, Argus Filch, Sybill Trelawney, Neville Longbottom, Hannah Abbott, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, the Parvati twins, Katie Bell, Cho Chang, Angelina Johnson, Lee Jordan, Ernie Macmillan, Alicia Spinnet and Aberforth Dumbledore!

As Hagrid released Harry from a bear-like hug which crushed his back, Harry then greeted the others who had come to protect their old school and the lives of the innocent. After rushed 'helloes' were exchanged, they all took out their wands as the soundtrack of war saw its volume raise. Now, Harry felt more comfortable and lot braver. He stood in the middle of a large group now of Aurors, Weasleys, ex-pupils and professors of Hogwarts. Together, on a count of three, they marched around the corner of the street where they then separated into multiple directions as they stepped into war. The majority of houses and shops had been set alight, the window glass lay like snow across the cracked surface of the concrete, glittering in the moonlight. Corpses, in abundance, lay in pools of blood, limbs missing, facial features distorted. There was flashes of multi-coloured light as hundreds of wizards and witches battled fiercely amongst the streets with cries of fear, anger and or death.

The Third Wizarding World War.

Down a short, thin alleyway near to the battle, Onya Lewis hid in the doorframe of a shop's back door, a wad of parchment clenched in one hand, her wand in the other. At the end of the alleyway Draco Malfoy appeared, bloodstained and scratched, and spotted Onya. With a confused expression he sat down beside her before hissing, "What're you doing here you coward?!"

"I am no coward, Draco." Onya showed Draco the parchment she held. It was the final piece they had found together when discovering the secrets of the Hallows. The parchment had been damaged by ink and all that was readable was; _'In order to assume an eternity of ultimate power to reign them all, as an act of…you must…'. _The intervals being smudged by black ink which Draco and Onya had no idea how to remove.

"What about it?!" Draco gestured at the statement.

"I found out how to remove the ink!" Draco who had been kneeling on the concrete step at the door now dropped onto his backside as his eyebrows raised, his pupils dilated and his mouth went dry and hung open.

"Y-y-you…?! You found out?!" Draco's voice was a little higher than usual and a lot hoarser. Onya nodded to him with a wide, wicked grin that went from ear to ear.

"Draco…with this we can rule these worlds ourselves! Ultimate power?!"

"How did you find out?"

"I came across a book last night with the spell for removing ink!" she squealed in delight. Onya and Draco were now just one incantation away from uncovering how to become omnipotent.

"Do it?!" Draco was unsure about the entire situation. He was doubtful things would go right. He had his reasons to worry but Onya discarded them immediately with her gleeful expression as she unsheathed her wand. Then, as she jabbed the place on the parchment where the dried out ink stains lay, she giggled, "Tergeo!"

Suddenly, the black ink that stained the parchment shrunk into nothing to leave the following statement;

_'In order to assume an eternity of ultimate power to reign them all, as an act of sacrifice, you must end the life of the beloved one that you returned first.'_

Onya and Draco stared at the statement imprinted on the single piece of parchment which had been written using black ink by the slanted hand-writing of the late Albus Dumbledore. Onya's previous smile had now altered into a bemused frown whereas Draco's face contorted with apprehension and worry.

"Do you understand what this means, Draco?" Onya exhaled noisily.

"Y-y-yeah…" Draco stammered, his hands shook a little as he adjusted where he sat on the stone ledge.

"We have to…"Onya collected her thoughts and rolled her wand between her hands, "We have to kill the Dark Lord…"

"W-w-we can't…!" Draco exclaimed quietly, "He's…we don't stand a chance, Onya."

Onya grabbed him by the arm, "What do you mean?!"

"I m-mean, he'll k-k-k-kill us before we get the chance."

"Rubbish," Onya complained, "We've slain tens of wizards and witches to get to where we are now, Draco! We've helped devise a wizarding world war…!"

"But our army won't let us do such a thing! And McKinnon's…well, they'd prefer to have the glory! And don't forget the Ministry and Potter…!"

"Get it together!" Onya snapped harshly, "Draco, we have the chance to have ultimate power?!"

"But what does that mean?!"

"What does that…?! What does that mean?!"

"Yeah…maybe I don't want ultimate power."

Onya scowled and stood up, looking down upon a solemn Draco, "I don't understand. All this time, I thought we were fighting for power over the Dark Lord?"

"Yes, the Dark Lord, for what he did to my family but the rest of the world? No, Onya."

Onya scoffed, "So we've just done all of this for you? Your family? Your revenge?"

"Nothing has gone as I planned."

"But…I thought you were backing this whole thing? Some of the things we have done have been your idea. I thought you were interested in having the power?!"

"Never. I've been a victim to temptation, Onya," Draco began, "As we've gone along the things that have happened to us have changed me for the worse. All I wanted was revenge. Not just on the Dark Lord but Potter too. He had my father imprisoned. Things were working on a minor scale but then all of this has happened and I regret everything I've done even before this!"

"Since when have you become so sensitive, so weak, Draco?! You're a murderer. I've seen you kill so many innocent…and now you say you regret these things you've done? I can understand you tried to get revenge for your father's imprisonment and temporary death and how the Lord treated you and your family but why have you gone to such extremes? You knew what I was about. Why get involved?" Onya spat.

Draco was hesitant before replying; "I don't know?! I needed help, I couldn't do it alone! You were on your own like me. Also needing a partner. I teamed up with you because I needed you, more than I thought. And then you just happened to become something I couldn't leave behind!"

"You talk about me as if I'm an object. I probably am, aren't I? A piece in your game of chess. The queen that'll take down the opposing players and leave you, the king, to take the glory," Onya was now livid, "I needed you too, Draco. Yes, I could of teamed up with anybody else, I could of easily left you behind and coped but something attached us together. Something I can't accept to believe, something I reject but it's there, Draco!"

Draco stood up too now, he gazed at Onya's wild eyes with a look which combined pity and revulsion, "Y-you, have f-f-feelings?!" Onya stared at him, angered, "You call me a killer, Onya?! Who was it that recommended we didn't kill and who went ahead and slaughtered? You've killed so many people in cold blood. I only killed when it was necessary. You're insane, Onya. All you want, is power. Power and death and destruction but why?! Why?! How can you…?! You know…"

"Love you?!" Onya's declaration saw her scream in Draco's face and reverberate against the stone walls of the shops, in the distance an unidentifiable bird took flight in shock, "I really don't know?! I was lonely and I felt unwanted and when we joined forces, I felt better. I felt wanted, protected, needed! That feeling of comfort made me think about things, made me feel things I'd never felt before. That emotion being one. And it has driven me mad. I don't want to love you, Draco. So, I do anything I can to distract those emotions, remove them! If I have something else to focus on, the feelings are absent. Taking other people's lives distracts me. Not just from my love for you but everything."

"What's everything, Onya?" Draco began, "Something I never got about you was why you do this. Why do you, a half-blood Ravenclaw, go out of your way to kill and destroy Muggle borns and Muggles? It can't really be about blood purity can it? Your original aim wasn't to claim this 'ultimate power' so why? Why do you do it? What happened to you?"

"Family."

"You've never spoken of your family. I assumed you didn't own one anymore."

"I definitely do." Onya said for them both to sit down and face each other.

"So…?" Draco wondered.

"My mother, Courtney…she's a Muggle. She's been married twice. First to my father, Joseph, who's single, who's a pure-blood, then to a Muggle, Matthew. I have a sister too, Jenny, she's married too. My full name's Yvonnya Elizabeth, after my grandmother, Lewis. Lewis being my dad's surname. Mum's now a Middle, after Matthew who died in a car accident. She was originally a Stone. Old Muggle family. Jenny's is now Jenny Ashbury, she's married to a pure-blood…"

"Why're you telling me all of this? What're you getting at?" Draco now was slightly arrogant in his wording.

"Because, I hate my family."

The air was then staunched with a temporary silence between the two as the screams and explosions of the war close by rattled the night.

"Why?" was all Draco could manage.

"Our dad left us. He was always too focussed on his job at the Ministry to even bother taking time out to spend with us. He was useless. It didn't help that mum hated magic, more than anything. She loathed it. If we did anything magical before her she'd lose it. She was dreadful most of the time. She was made even worse by Matthew. He hated magic more than any Muggle I'd ever encountered," Onya shifted uncomfortably, "He took out his hatred for magic on the only magical people he knew. Me and Jenny. Jenny, being older than me, moved out with the money she got from working under my father in the Ministry. He'd given her a job to consolidate the years of neglect on her, but nothing for me. I've had my dad neglect me, my sister abandon me, my mum and her now husband abuse me for their personal hatred for magic. But it isn't just them is it? If every Muggle knew of magic they'd hate it too…see it as dangerous…so, if Muggles think wizards and witches are evil then maybe we should be. Our world has had to be kept a secret from theirs for too long. Why should we hide and be hated? That's why I do it. Mudbloods and Muggles die at my hand because they don't deserve lives where they don't have to hide from a more superior, more important race. Now, do you understand?"

What Onya said did make sense to Draco who nodded slowly, gathering in all the pieces of information. He now understood Onya's passion for power and her hatred of Muggle borns and Muggles.

"I don't see why you assume all Muggles hate magic…" Draco interjected.

"Are you trying to defend them, Draco? Don't. Just, don't. Don't defend them. They must all…!"

Draco interrupted, "No! No, they don't!"

"How can you say this?!" Onya pulled back Draco's sleeve to see the faded outline of the Dark Mark etched onto his skin, "You're a Death Eater, not me!"

"I was forced! You know that?!"

"Huh," Onya sniffed, "You're an internal hypocrite, you know that, right?"

"And yet you love me."

Onya shook her head slightly and issued a small smile, "Lord knows why…"

Draco shrugged, "Well, I don't. And I can safely say, the favour isn't returned."

Onya raised her eyebrows in affirmation, as if she already knew the answer was coming, "I'm not sure it'll last long. The longer we talk for, the attraction weakens…and I thought…"

"Thought what?!" Draco spat.

"…the feeling was mutual. That what we shared was…"

"Special?! Onya, how could anyone love you? I'm sorry, I really am, but to do what you do in order to resolve your issues is wrong on so many levels."

"Never forget how you partook in this, Draco Malfoy." Onya stood up, Draco copied her.

"How could I forget how much of bitter, sick and twisted creature that you have become, Onya…I pity you. I really do. I'm sorry about your family, I am, trust me, but I can't be with you…you're too volatile. You're asking too much. What you're doing is unnecessary…you could have been such a great witch too…" Draco then turned to exit the alleyway before facing Onya again, "What are you going to do then?"

Onya looked down at the piece of parchment still clutched in her hand, contemplating her near future, "I have to do this."

"Then I've got to go. You aren't my responsibility anymore. If you do this and gain whatever powers you are promised, I'm staying out of the way. I don't want anything to do with any of this now."

Draco then gulped before spinning on his heels and swiftly exiting the alleyway in the opposite direction to the battle. Onya's eyes followed his footsteps until his feet turned a corner at the end of the alley and Onya was left alone. Now, it was up to her whether to kill Lord Voldemort or not, with the possibility of ultimate power awaiting her with that murder. So, with her emotions lingering on the thought of Draco and her instinct telling her to take advantage of the opportunity at hand, Onya, re-entered the war that filled the streets of Hogsmeade.

Harry was back to back with Seamus Finnegan behind a large chunk of brick wall in the middle of Hogsmeade's high street. From behind the wall, Harry and Seamus fired multiple defensive charms, hexes and curses at Death Eaters. The battle scene now saw hundreds of Aurors, Death Eaters, civilians, ex-pupils and professors of Hogwarts and former members of the Order of the Phoenix immersed in heavy duelling combat. The battles had ripped apart half of the village and begun to spread out towards Hogwarts whose defensive spells had been shattered and the gates blown apart, one of the towers collapsed. Voldemort seemed to of disappeared whereas McKinnon took on several Aurors and Dean Thomas. Elsewhere, Ron and Luna battled Alecto Carrow and one of Onya's ex-followers. Hermione and Kingsley were immersed in a duel with the Black sisters; Narcissa and Bellatrix. Lucius Malfoy had found himself locked in combat with Neville. The other Weasleys were spread out with the others fighting Death Eaters Harry didn't recognise, plenty of which were dead. To add to this so were numerous Aurors too. In the vast and continually rising death toll, notable deaths included those of Rodolphus Lestrange, Bellatrix's husband, and his brother; Rabastan, Evan Rosier and Selwyn. Unluckily, professor Sprout, Susan Bones, Michael Corner, Anthony Goldstein and Zacharias Smith had fallen victim to Killing Curses, amongst them various other students. In the fighting, Marietta Edgecomb, Justin Finch-Fletchley, professors Trelawney and Slughorn and Charlie Weasley had all received major injuries which had left them immobilised on the battle field, nursed by others.

Then, as Harry shot a successful Hurling Hex at a Death Eater than he spotted Onya re-entering the battle from the alleyway. Before she had chance to do so, Harry spotted the piece of parchment in her hand as she stashed it into her robes. Distracted, Harry didn't have chance to block a ball of flames which penetrated the top of the brick wall. It blasted bits of brick debris into his hair and face where cuts were made, the flames also left his hair singed and his right cheek burnt lightly. By the time Harry looked back up to find Onya she had gone, disappeared into the crowd of duellers. Harry realised by the look on Onya's face and by the parchment shaking in her hand that she'd removed the ink on Dumbledore's notes…she knew that the way to receive what she thought was 'power' by killing Voldemort. Harry knew that she would be on her way to murder him, her greed for power being too strong to resist. By the time Harry found her she would of killed Voldemort for him, so that would mean she would become the Disciple and by killing her Harry could have the chance to bring back Ginny…

Harry, ignoring several exclamations by Seamus, burst out from behind the brick wall to dive onto the concrete to avoid a showering of Stunning and Killing Curses. As he grazed his elbows and knees on the ground, Harry looked up to see a gang of Death Eaters who'd been attacking him and Seamus, now surround Harry. Knowing he'd be unable to defeat them all in a duel Harry had a wild idea. This saw him swing his wand towards the brick wall and with a deafening roar he issued, "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" So, as the Death Eaters raised their wands for a joint-kill, Harry swished and flicked his wand in order for the brick wall to vibrate. As Seamus stood aback from it and the Death Eaters faltered in their killing in shock, Harry with much effort managed to bring the wall off of the ground. Harry's wand felt the weight of the wall, it took Harry two hands and much grunting to finally pick up the wall so that it floated above the ground, then launch it in the direction of the Death Eaters. The wall shattered as it hit the group of five and knocked them unconscious leaving Seamus to join another duel and Harry with a nose bleed. He hastily wiped his nostrils with a sleeve before getting to his feet and running into the midst of the battle.

Aberforth Dumbledore was struggling to defeat Walden MacNair, and in a way protecting his old tavern; the Hog's Head, from further destruction. Then, as MacNair tripped Aberforth over a gigantic bare leg as thick and as long as a big tree trunk smashed through the entirety of the pub. From what Harry could tell, the leg was owned by that of giant who had now kicked his way into the high street of Hogsmeade. The damage done to the Hog's head now so a large gap in its structure and all the bricks had rained down onto both MacNair and Aberforth as the giant stepped clumsily into the street. It had a squashed nose, tangled, greasy black hair and tanned skin with mottled veins in its limbs. However, it was not to be the only creature that entered the war. As Harry, fuelled with ambition to recover whatever was left of Aberforth's body from the remains of the Hog's head, another two giants smashed their way into the streets of Hogsmeade soon followed by an array of Acromantula that had been taken from the depths of the Forbidden Forest where Hagrid's pet Aragog once lived with his family. Harry, screaming Aberforth's name as he went, flung himself into the rubble. With both his hands and his wand he removed piles of rubble and planks of wood until he heard a muffled coughing. Behind a window frame, Harry, in the centre of the ruins, found Aberforth, his legs trapped under a mountain of bricks. His face was sweaty and pockmarked with scratches, his breathing was heavy as Harry reached him.

"Get out of here!" he shouted at Harry who shook his head firmly.

"Don't be thick, I'm getting you out!" Harry replied beginning to throw scraps of wood and bricks off of Aberforth's legs, ignoring his winces of pain.

"Look up, boy, look up!" Aberforth cried for Harry to examine above him. There was some wooden infrastructure of the pub still standing but on top of it rested several large chunks of roof. The plank of wood holding these up was now creaking and folding in the middle and would snap and see a cascade of rubble crush Aberforth and Harry to death.

"I can't leave you here!" Harry resumed throwing bricks in various directions to free Aberforth.

"I've had my time, boy! If you stay here you'll die and you can't do that! You just can't!" Aberforth argued.

"You saved my life more than once! Now, it's time to return the favour!" Harry said as he removed the last few bricks to reveal Aberforth's battered, bloodied legs. He tried to shift one of them but it seemed stiff and immobile.

"I can't move!" Aberforth gesticulated at his right leg which had a deep gash in it.

Harry ignored this and went around the back of Aberforth as the plank began to splinter. There, Harry put his hands under Aberforth's armpits and pulled. Harry's plan was to take the former landlord out of the rubble before the wooden plank snapped and propelled bricks on top of him. Harry had begun to drag Aberforth out of the wreckage when he smelt something. Something burning.

"Harry, leave me here! That'll collapse any second anyway!" Aberforth ordered him, "It'll kill me before the fire does!"

"Fire?!" Harry then spotted flames beginning to engulf the wreckage of the tavern all around them. The temperature rose to insane levels as materials around them began to turn to cinders. The Death Eaters were burning them alive, "But what about MacNair? Why would they do thi…?!" Aberforth pointed ahead of them where Harry saw MacNair dead, a long spike of wood sticking out from his chest. Harry briefly remembered seeing MacNair for the first time five years earlier, when the Death Eater was an executioner for the Ministry and was due to end the life of Hagrid's Hippogriff Buckbeak. Harry then shook the thought out of his mind as he picked up Aberforth again and tried to drag him out from the building. As the fire consumed most of the pub's remains, Harry had just managed to pull Aberforth out of line from the falling debris. The wood plank had broken and several chunks of brick dropped dully to the ground. Seconds later, the patch where Harry and Aberforth once were was set alight. They, on the other hand, had reached a tight opening back into the street. Harry crawled through first before helping Aberforth do the same as a flame licked his robes. By the time the pair had escaped the flames, the fire now had dominion of the whole of the Hog's Head. Everything was blackened and falling apart, creating piles of dust and ash and soot as the fire raged.

Out in the open, Harry released Aberforth on the side of the high street and with a fleeting, weak smile Harry left the elderly wizard sat back, breathing heavily, and uttering his thanks to Harry. Now back into the war with a wounded Aberforth behind him, Harry realised McKinnon's army of Dementors had also arrived were spread out selecting souls to devour between the streets of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Harry, now continued his mad dash through the throng of duellers and creatures to crash into several Death Eaters. Once they spotted Harry they sprinted after him until he shot down a canopy on one of the shops which entangled the four Death Eaters in a sheet of fabric. Harry then ducked and rolled to avoid the jumping attack of an Acromantula to come across Ron. Ron had now managed to acquire a broken nose, he had several deep cuts in his right leg several chunks of flesh had been ripped from his arms. Amongst this, his clothes had been mostly burnt and torn and he was dotted with many cuts and bruises.

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed through a mouthful of blood which he deposited on the ground.

"Ron, have you seen Voldemort or Onya?!" Harry quizzed him.

"No, why?!"

"She knows, Ron, Onya knows!"

Ron looked horror-struck, "She's gone to kill him?!"

"I think so!" there was a particularly loud explosion that then detonated nearby which shook the pair when Hermione came running towards them.

"What're you doing stood here?!" she yelled.

"Harry says Onya's gone to kill You-Know Who!" Ron informed Hermione who looked just as horrified as Ron did.

"I didn't think it was right how she ran into Hogwarts…?!" Hermione had accidentally managed to tell Harry of Onya's whereabouts. With the information in mind, he gave a rushed thanks to Hermione before returning to run. Harry realised Ron and Hermione naturally followed him but he didn't think to tell them to back off, instead he allowed them to follow him. Harry could see Hogwarts just ahead of him. Several towers had been demolished, most of the stained glass windows had been broken, the Quidditch pitch had been destroyed and the grounds played as battle rendezvous, sections of these were alight. In the distance, Harry could see the entrance to the Forbidden Forest had been ripped up and burnt.

Harry had reached the entrance path up to remnants of the old gates which lay in pieces on the ground. As Harry avoided various curses he tripped up on some minor rubble causing him to topple to the ground. Above him, Ron and Hermione helped pull him up but by the time they did something greeted their presence. A large black spider sprang from behind a wall and appeared to jump in their direction. However, the spider's destination was actually behind them as they realised when it pounced upon an unsuspecting Madam Pomfrey. She fell back onto the concrete as the spider rammed its pincers into her neck leaving it to bleed profusely. Harry blew the spider away with an accurate stunning spell at its head, causing it to crumple in a ball nearby. Harry then went to kneel by Madam Pomfrey's side as she held a hand to her wounded neck.

"Ouch!" she whimpered as she touched the incision, blood continued to drip down her throat.

"You'll be okay!" Harry reassured her as he sat on his heels and took her other hand.

"Potter, that spider's venom is poisonous!" Madam Pomfrey's expert knowledge dumbfounded Harry. She wouldn't be incorrect on such a thing, so Harry realised there'd be nothing he could do.

"Isn't there an antidote?!" Harry queried.

"Not a fortified one for common use, no…it'd too late now anyway…the venom has found its way into my bloodstream…" she exhaled as Harry rubbed her wrinkled hand. This was the woman that had healed on so many occasions in the all too familiar Hospital Wing in Hogwarts. From falling off of his broom to battling Dementors and dragons, Madam Pomfrey had always been there to nurse him back to health. Now, she lay dying before his eyes…he had the opportunity to recover her, restore her back to normal like she had always done but he couldn't. There was no possible way he could bring her back.

"Thank you, Potter…" she sighed, squeezing his hand and producing one of the only smiles Harry had ever seen her take on. It was weak and she trembled as he held her, then, the pressure closed around Harry's hand loosened. Madam Pomfrey's grip had slackened and her eyes had stopped roving in their sockets…Harry checked her pulse…there was nothing. The Hogwarts nurse, Madam Pomfrey, could now be added to the continuing toll of innocent deaths.

"Harry, we've got to go!" Ron pulled Harry to his feet by his jacket and urged him to continue running. Harry just managed to catch a final glimpse of the body of Poppy Pomfrey before the figures of war diluted his view and Harry realised he was back, embroiled in battle. As he raced up towards the large stone steps that lead into the open gates into the Entrance Hall, Harry fought off various Death Eaters and saw plenty of students and Aurors be killed in front of him. Harry, Ron and Hermione then accessed the school and were in the Entrance Hall. Portraits, stone statues and suits of armour had been knocked over, ripped, smashed and burnt. Parts of the walls had been blown apart, the doors that lead into the Great Hall had been obliterated and in there the four house tables had been destroyed as well as the remaining containers for the House Point jewels. In order to find Onya, still unsure whether he'd kill her if she didn't reach Voldemort by that time, Harry propelled himself into the Great Hall. There he ducked several arrows that had been shot by a bunch of centaurs who had evacuated the Forest to join the battle again. In the Hall Harry saw Hagrid sat on the shoulders of his half-brother, giant Grawp. As Grawp kicked and punched Death Eaters his brother the Game Keeper fired multiple hexes from his old, battered umbrella. Harry, confident that Hagrid was safe, ran into duel with Luna who fought alongside Rolf Scamander, an ex-Hufflepuff from Harry's year. Harry had never spoken to Rolf but knew of his family history. Rolf's grandfather; Newton, had been a famed Magizoologist who had written; 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them'. As well as this, he'd been a headmaster at Hogwarts whose ghost still resided in the castle and had Harry had shared pleasantries with him occasionally when he was a student. Luna and Rolf were tackling a Dementor when Harry, Ron and Hermione went to intervene but something beat them to it. As the Dementor lowered its hood to kiss Rolf, his grandfather Newton swept in front of him. The silvery ghost of the former headmaster floated afore the Dementor, blocking it from his grandson. With some ethereal power Harry was unaware of, Newton's presence saw the Dementor back off, pull up its hood and redirect itself elsewhere leaving Rolf untouched. With a thank you to his grandfather who gave him a gentle smile before disappearing, Rolf took Luna's hand and together they dashed away to encounter another foe leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione in shock. From what they had seen Luna had found herself head over heels with a Hufflepuff in the middle of the crisis. Though the thought made Harry realise there was still love out there, keeping people together and strong, but he succumbed to his fear and paranoia and left the section of the Great Hall behind.

He then stood stock still in the centre, Ron and Hermione on either side of him, as he span on the spot to try and find Onya but his search deemed unsuccessful. Then, out of nowhere, he saw a trail of brown hair whip past him and realised it was Onya making her way out of the Great Hall. Harry gestured to her sudden appearance and for his friends to follow as he loped towards the exit. Harry's morals then took a blow. As he accelerated he noticed an unarmed Thorfinn Rowle kicking the limp, lifeless body of Parvati Patil. Harry recognising her and feel slightly guilty for the beating she was being handed now faced a dilemma. As Ron and Hermione, not realising Parvati lay metres away being kicked senseless by Rowle, urged Harry to continue chasing Onya. But Harry could not leave Parvati being kicked to death. So, against his personally set duty, Harry forgot usage of his wand and dived on top of Rowle. Parvati Harry distinctly remembered, had been his date for the Yule Ball four and a half years previously. He had disdained from dancing with her, made her unhappy as he dwelled in jealousy of Cho Chang's date; Cedric Diggory. Harry owed her this. Saving her life was something that let Harry believe he'd repaid a debt he owed to others, where he'd failed with Madam Pomfrey…With this in mind, Harry jammed his wand into Rowle's skull, "OBLIVIATE!" The spell came into immediate effectiveness, seeing Rowle's eyes cross and him losing consciousness, as well as his memory of being a Death Eater. Harry then jumped back up to his feet to see Hermione finish off nursing Parvati's multiple wounds and her and Ron leaving her to join Harry. As Harry continued to exit the Great Hall he heard Parvati express her thanks for Harry's defeat of Rowle.

The trio soon burst into a corridor where Crabbe Senior and a gang of Death Eaters were struck down by a large bell that Neville and Lee Jordan had detached from the school clock. As the trio skirted around the crushed bodies Ron called out to Neville, "Neville, have you seen Onya?!"

"Yeah! She's in the courtyard!" Neville shouted before he and Lee were entranced by a duel with some Death Eaters as the stairs they stood on rotated. Harry noticed a gaping hole in the corridor which he, Ron and Hermione left the building through, into the expansive courtyard that had been devastated by the war. Harry noticed saw many injured pupils and professors and Aurors but just as many dead. There too were a high number of centaurs and Death Eaters including Antonin Dolohov, Jugson, Nott Senior and Mulciber all dead as well. As the trio sprinted through the centre of the courtyard they immersed themselves in multiple conflicts in order to preserve both their own lives and that of others. As they got deeper into the courtyard they saved Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell and Mundungus Fletcher. As well as this they defeated numerous Dementors and avoided the eyesight of a gigantic troll. No matter how many twists and turns they took in that courtyard and how many wizards and witches were mowed down before them, they saw no sign of Onya. Harry at that juncture spotted several Death Eaters from both armies disperse into the depths of the Forbidden Forest. Harry then ordered Ron and Hermione to follow him as he went in after the Death Eaters. As a large trunk alive with flames crashed into the ground behind them, Harry, Ron and Hermione were then in the entrance to the forest. The sound of war was muffled by the trees but Harry was too distracted with what was around him to care. He hadn't been in the Forest since he had volunteered himself for death…gone to surrender in the middle of the Forest to Voldemort and die. It was where things had changed drastically for the previous war, would such things happen again? Harry, unnerved by a sudden grasp of nausea trembled as he ambled deeper into the forest. His thoughts revolved around what he find in the Forest as well as his memories of his mother, father, Lupin and Sirius guiding him to his death bed just a year earlier. It wasn't until Harry surpassed the place where had dropped the Resurrection Stone originally, that his knees buckled and he sat on the foot of a tree. Ron and Hermione, double checking no one was near, sat beside Harry.

"Harry?" Hermione consoled him with an arm around his shoulders.

"Sorry…it's just…last time I was here…" Harry garbled.

"Don't worry mate, we get it," Ron patted him on the back.

"I k-k-know but…" Harry's words didn't form as he looked up at his friend's faces. Ron and Hermione were full of cuts and bruises and other various injuries that unsettled Harry…he gingerly placed an index finger to his stomach where his old scar had begun to seep bleed into his tee shirt. People were dead and Harry could stop it if he put his past behind him and put up the courage to stand on his feet and walk further into the Forest. Except he didn't think he could face it. He didn't know what lay in store for him…no idea who stood in the forest, maybe waiting for his arrival?

"I d-don't know w-w-whether I can d-d-d-do this!" Harry stuttered, some tears fell from his eyes as cold sweat trickled down from his brow.

"You can, Harry! We know you can! You're braver than you think!" Hermione encouraged him.

"You're the only one who can do this, Harry. And we'll be with you..." Ron told him.

Hermione added, "Every step of the way."

Harry knew he was the only one who could prevent any more deaths, make a ceasefire and end the war, defeat McKinnon and Voldemort and save the souls of those who Onya had killed.

"Right…" Harry then stumbled to his feet, supported by Ron and Hermione.

"Are you sure you're okay, Harry?" Hermione grilled him.

"Yeah…" Harry lied.

"We're finding them then? Assuming they're all in here?" Ron quizzed his best friend and partner.

"I guess so…" Harry then took a single step forward accompanied by Ron and Hermione. Hermione, being in the middle, took hold of both the boys' hands and with a weak smile each, they continued their walk. After minutes of searching and listening, Harry, Ron and Hermione dropped each other's hands and held up their wands to the sounds of muffled conversation. Through a gap in the trees Harry spotted a clearing, similar to the one he had died in a year previously. Harry, Ron and Hermione ducked down and hid behind a broken log, their heads peered over the top to examine the scene ahead of them.

In the clearing surmounted by high-rising trees sat and stood the main body of what was left of Voldemort's army. Voldemort himself stood facing in the opposite direction with a wand twirling between his fingers. Sat on a rock nearby to him was Bellatrix Lestrange who was humming something awfully out of tune. Dotted around the clearing stood; Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Amycus Carrow, Travers, Wilkes and Augustus Rookwood.

"Muffilato!" Hermione whispered causing her, Ron and Harry to be enclosed in an invisible bubble where whatever they said wouldn't be heard by anybody nearby, "Where's Draco?"

"No idea. He might be helping Onya or stuck in a fight or ran away…?" Harry suggested, clueless of the whereabouts of his former school nemesis.

"She isn't here yet. Onya. So, what're we going to do?" Ron asked.

Ron was right. Onya hadn't found Voldemort yet. He was still alive. He was just metres ahead of Harry who had a perfect eye line for a Killing Curse to be shot at the back of Voldemort's head. However, he still had a decision to make. He could easily end Voldemort's life once and for all and remove one side of the Death Eater's leaders, demoralising them and causing them to surrender. That would mean either McKinnon's army would attempt to gain control of what was left in the devastation brought by the war or Kingsley and the Aurors would see their attempt at rebellion be crushed too. Though this was rather an unlikely outcome from Voldemort's imminent death, Harry knew it was better than the other effects of his death. With Voldemort dead the opportunity for Onya to become the Disciple would simply dissipate but nothing else would happen. The resurrected would stay alive and the souls Onya took would remain trapped in limbo for eternity. Harry knew he couldn't risk Onya becoming the Disciple as it meant gambling people's lives and souls, it was a better alternative to kill her. Though Harry had never had the intention to end Onya's life originally, he'd decided it was for the best. Killing her before she would have chance to become the Disciple would see the resurrected return to being dead. However, though letting her become the Disciple was a heavy risk, letting her do so saw Harry have the possibility of bringing back those killed by Onya. From that moment he knew he had to kill Onya it was just when he did so.

"I've decided." Harry then ventured into his explanation for choosing Onya over Voldemort to kill for Ron and Hermione to comprehend.

"Onya isn't here right? And this war needs to stop now before it gets any worse, correct?" Ron checked, "We don't have time to wait for Onya to kill Voldemort. We need them both dead. So, I say I kill Voldemort…"

The fact that Ron had even uttered Voldemort's name had shaken Harry but now his best friend was volunteering to murder the most dangerous wizard of all time, "Ron, you can't?!"

"I can. If you kill Voldemort now there's nothing you can do to save those souls, but if I kill him and then you kill Onya as soon as possible then you can let those souls pass onto the other side and return all the Death Eaters back to death!" Ron's plan seemed fool-proof. If he killed Voldemort it would have no effect on the souls collected or Onya's fate. It would just mean the ruthless, slaughterer of hundreds would be dead permanently and his army would fall with him.

"So…we're doing this?" Hermione asked them.

Harry gave a stifled nod, "Ron's going to kill Voldemort."

Ron gulped and shuddered immensely as he got up to his feet. Harry followed him up with Hermione and they all shared a glance with one another before reflecting onto the clearing ahead of them. Ron was going to kill Voldemort. Ron who had been too frightened to even say Voldemort's name for so many years was now volunteering to deliver his first ever Killing Curse to help Harry in his quest to end the war and put an end to Onya's possible reign of terror. Ron quietly raised his right arm and pointed his wand towards the clearing…then, directly aimed at the back of Voldemort's head. His arm and hand were shaking with the rest of his body…sweat dripped out of every pore…his eyes stung with tears as Harry and Hermione stood close by his side. Harry knew Ron was scared, unbelievably scared but he was putting on a brave façade to help restore good in the world. Ron clenched his wand tighter, his eyelids flickered, he bit his bottom lip and his right foot twisted on the ground, crushing leaves…Harry didn't want his friend to do such a thing. Commit the Unforgiveable Curse and be dragged into feelings of despair as his conscience held him responsible and made him feel so much guilt. The act Ron was set to perform, in Harry's eyes, would tear him apart. Harry knew though that Ron was doing it for him…for Hermione…for Ginny…for everybody.

"I love you two, you know…?" Ron falsified a laugh as Hermione stood on her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek. Ron then parted his lips and began to open his mouth to utter the lethal curse. Voldemort still stood still in the distance, admiring the shrubbery that guarded his fortress. Harry felt hatred boil through his veins as every single murderous act Voldemort had committed flashed before his eyes. As Harry stood beside a trembling Ron, he scrutinised the back of Voldemort's head. The view he had of the wizard triggered a memory in Harry's mind. One that saw Quirinus Quirrel unravel his turban to reveal the horrific visage of Voldemort imprinted onto the back of his skull. Harry then began to play a slideshow of images in his head of his most significant memories of the ruined man who stood before him, set to die. Harry saw flashes of green light and the screams of his mother and father, James and Lily, as they clattered to the ground, dead, in their Godric's Hollow home. In the depths of the Forbidden Forest, under the moonlight a hooded figure with silver blood on its chin, disappeared into the thicket of trees after a centaur ambushed it. Down in the Chamber of Secrets as Harry's hand was clenched around a Basilisk fang stuck in a bleeding black diary, the ghost of Tom Riddle ceased to exist, Ginny's young, unconscious form so close by…It was the graveyard, Cedric was dead, Harry was strapped to the grave of Tom Riddle Senior. In the distance Peter Pettigrew brewed in a cauldron after taking some of Harry's blood. The small child-like creature he held in his arms was dropped into the liquid and re-emerged with the all too familiar body. The snow white skin, the bald head, the red, glowing eyes and the slits for nostrils. The long fingers of the large, spider-like hands and the cold, high voice that emitted from the owner. He touched Harry's forgotten scar and made it burn.

The image changed. Voldemort and Albus Dumbledore duelled in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic, destroying the golden statue that stood in the middle. Harry's body was soon taken over, possessed…Voldemort and Dumbledore got younger. Voldemort morphed into a young child who informed an auburn-haired Dumbledore of his abuse of other children and the strange powers he possesses…a teenage Tom Riddle is asking a younger Horace Slughorn about Horcruxes in his office…the same Tom Riddle frames Hagrid for the killing of Moaning Myrtle and the opening of the Chamber of the Secrets…Harry's wand spins around to meet a flying Voldemort in the sky to shoot fiery sparks at him. Voldemort fails to kill Harry again…in the Forbidden Forest Harry has entered the clearing and Voldemort turns to him, triumphant…in the Great Hall the Death Eaters, the professors, the students, the parents are all gathered. The Elder Wand exchanges hands, Voldemort's killing curse rebounds off of Harry…

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Tom Marvolo Riddle Junior fell to the earth, dead.

Once the back of Lord Voldemort's head had been licked by the green light of the inevitable Killing Curse, his muscles failed him and his body crumpled into a heap on the ground to the cries of shock and horror of his closest followers. Voldemort's sudden death saw Bellatrix rush to his aid, bawling uncontrollably and begging for her master's revival but she was unable to reach him. Within seconds something happened to his body. The corpse began to disintegrate into dust from head to toe. Eventually, Voldemort's body became a floating vacuum of white dust which rotated in the air. The robes he once wore lay in a bundle upon the ground as Harry noticed within the vacuum of dust, a single hovering ball of light. As the vacuum span clockwise the silvery orb of light started to pulsate and increase in size until it abruptly dissipated into nothing. The ashes of Voldemort's body then dissolved into air like smoke on the wind. All that was left behind of his existence was the wand he had taken control of, as well as his robes that lay strewn across the clearing. The Death Eaters there were taken aback but the destruction of their leader but only Bellatrix shed tears for him. Harry, feeling more nauseous than beforehand, collapsed onto the grass behind him. Hermione dropped down beside him whereas Ron slouched against the body of a tree and dropped his wand. It was at that moment when Harry realised that Ron's mouth never did form the incantation. His friend has been hesitant and had not delivered the curse in time, instead, another beat him to it. As Ron had been set to unleash the final blow to Voldemort, none other than Onya Lewis had burst through the thicket of trees and hurled her own killing curse at Voldemort. Harry, lost in his own thoughts, had been unaware of her entrance and his brain simply assumed Ron had followed through with the deed. The information did not fully process and make sense in Harry's head until Hermione whispered into his ear, "Ron didn't do it, Harry! Onya did! Onya killed Voldemort!"

Harry pushed himself onto his feet and viewed the scene ahead of him. Onya brushed aside some branches that were tangled in her hair before fully entering the clearing. She dropped her wand and roughly wiped blood from her lips where she had been cut. Still in a state of dire shock, the Death Eaters ambled backwards at the sight of Onya, their master's maker. His murderer. Onya then began to convulse violently on the spot but her strength kept her firmly on her feet. She then forcibly spread her arms, leant backwards and tilted her head, her eyes clasped shut. Suddenly, a gust of cold wind rushed in from all sides with such force that reminded Harry of the events surrounding Voldemort's resurrection. As the wind speed and pressure increased Onya's eyes flicked open to show not her pupils but instead black light flooded out of her eyes. As she trembled on the spot, the Death Eaters backed away as the wind picked up. Then, high above the ground, directly above Onya's head, the Elder Wand, the Stone of Resurrection and the Invisibility cloak Apparated in the air. The cloak folded to gain the shape of an isosceles triangle small enough for the Elder Wand to place itself vertically down the middle and then the Resurrection Stone expanded enough in size to slot behind the wand against the cloak. The shape formed resembled that of an eye…the familiar symbol Harry recognised as that of the Deathly Hallows now hovered above Onya's head. As they joined they began to emit a pearly white glow and began to spin rapidly in an anti-clockwise motion, faster and faster. As the Hallows span, Onya screeched like she was in incredible pain and agony. Then, multiple balls of light shot out from the triangle of Hallows and launched themselves directly into Onya's chest. As each one passed through her and into her body Onya screamed louder. Around her, smaller balls of light sprang out of the chests of the Death Eaters who Harry knew had been resurrected using the Hallows. Harry guessed these balls of light were individual animal souls taken from each Death Eater in order to boost Onya's collection of souls which were being beamed into her body. By removing just one soul from each Death Eater this left them alive but weakened immensely. They all collapsed unconscious immediately as one of their souls was sucked out of their bodies and redirected into Onya. In the sky more animal souls from Death Eaters resurrected, dead or alive, and those Onya had killed, zapped straight into the place where Onya's heart lay. After a few minutes of the souls being transported into her body, Onya, was then subjected to a tunnel of bright light which was generated by the triangle of Hallows. The tunnel of light encased Onya whose screaming lowered as the final soul entered her heart. The tunnel of light's brightness than increased so much it was impossible to look at it in case of possible blindness. The light now consumed Onya's body before she absorbed it all and was left to drop to the ground. The wind then cut, the lights faded and the Hallows began to lower themselves. Onya's body, limp and lifeless, rose up from the ground. The cloak then unfurled and attached itself to Onya's back but did not turn her invisible. Instead, the cloak turned jet-black. The Resurrection Stone shrunk until it was diminutive and was able to slide down the throat of an open mouthed, unconscious Onya. The Elder Wand then placed itself in her wand hand and made her fingers keep hold of it tightly.

Onya's body then lowered to the ground and the piece of parchment that she had made the revelations of eternity ejected itself from her robes. Then, whilst floating in the air, the parchment burst spontaneously into blue flames before generating a pile of black soot on the grassy surface. Onya was then stood stock still, her head hanging. She had stopped screaming minutes before and now was silent before issuing a high-pitched cackle, turning on her heel and Disapparating. The place where she stood set alight with the same blue flames that burnt the piece of parchment. Harry, behind the trees, realised what he had just spectated was the creation of something more powerful that he'd ever encountered.

Onya had become the Disciple.


	32. Rise Of The Disciple

Voldemort was dead. Onya was the Disciple. Harry's plan had not worked. The war continued.

Harry's brain hurt. His heart smashed against his ribs, cold sweat doused his body making his tee-shirt stick to his chest. Harry felt blood congealing on his face as tears trickled down his cheeks. His brain tried to comprehend what he had seen. The final death of Lord Voldemort and the rise of the Disciple. Except, he struggled to think about these events, when Jeremiah McKinnon and Draco Malfoy emerged from the other side of the clearing. Their faces were horror-struck and as if they had been watching for some time which meant they knew of Voldemort's murder and Onya's transformation. Though Draco and McKinnon were destined to be each other's enemy because of Draco's betrayal and how they decided to take sides in the war, they didn't acknowledge one another were there. McKinnon knelt down beside the pile of dust which had been the single piece of parchment detailing how to gain the powers that Onya had now received. He sprinkled the ashes onto the grass as Draco ignored him and went to his parents. Narcissa who had not been deceased previously, sat unscathed next to Draco's father Lucius. Narcissa was tear-stained and shaking as she held Lucius' rag doll-esque body in her hands. When Draco came to his father's aid, he flipped over the body to reveal the damage done by the removal of one of his souls. His skin had been drawn tightly over his bones and become mottled and blue, his veins prominent all over his body. The wounds he may have received in fighting had now worsened, cuts being deeper and bruises growing. Lucius also appeared to of adopted some animalistic traits from the souls he had been left with. It appeared the ripping out of one saw his resurrected form mutilated. He seemed sick and weak, his hair had thinned but some of his teeth had adapted and sharpened. After his head was petted by Narcissa, Lucius awoke startled to see his son and wife before him. He snapped at the air with his teeth, seemingly aggressive and emitting a growling sound. Onya, in Harry's opinion, had taken part of the life forces from those she had brought back in order to become more powerful. In return the resurrected were left ill and animalised. Harry could tell this as one by one the unconscious Death Eaters arose, looking just as deformed as Lucius was.

McKinnon now ceased fondling with the ashes of the parchment which distracted him and noticed Draco like he hadn't previously.

"Draco…?" McKinnon's voice was hoarse and distant. His face was besmirched with several, deep, long cuts, his robes were burnt badly and one of his fingers was missing on his left hand.

"McKinnon." Draco replied shortly, keeping an eye on his strangely behaved father who lay on the grassy ground.

"Lewis killed the Dark Lord and she seemed to of been granted some sort of power from the Hallows?" McKinnon wanted confirmation.

"Yeah…"

"I don't understand. When I read those notes I don't remember anything about…" McKinnon's words stopped temporarily, "I discarded the information as a ploy by Dumbledore to put off anybody that read his findings."

"Well, it's true." Malfoy admitted, defeated.

"She has… 'ultimate power'?" McKinnon asked.

"All she had to do was kill the first person she brought back."

McKinnon took a look at the bundle of black robes on the ground once owned by Voldemort.

"The Dark Lord?"

Draco nodded.

"What happened to this lot?" McKinnon inclined his head towards the afflicted Death Eaters.

"Didn't you see?" McKinnon raised his eyebrows, "I knew I was right. When the animals around us died when we resurrected people, their souls went into the Death Eaters…maybe lots of animal souls can add up to make a human soul. She's taken one soul out of each Death Eater to help boost her power evidently weakening the people she's brought back and made them more like animals."

Harry realised Draco was more intelligent and aware than he first thought.

"So what do we do now?" McKinnon surprisingly asked Draco for his advice.

"Ceasefire." The word caused the atmosphere in the clearing to become icy. The Death Eaters grumbled in disagreement with what Draco said. McKinnon on the other hand seemed to contemplate the idea happily.

"I'm not sure such a thing would go down well with the other Death Eaters. From the reaction we've got from this lot..."

"Let me help you."

Harry had rubbed the sweat, blood and tears from his face, took a deep breath of cold air, shook his damp, singed fringe out of his eyes before plucking up the courage and walking into the clearing against Ron and Hermione's will.

"Harry Potter…?" McKinnon issued a small smile as Harry stepped out into the open, his teeth chattered and his body trembled as he ambled forwards.

"I'm the only person who can stop her." Harry stated, biting his lip.

"How do you figure that one out?" McKinnon snapped.

"It's complicated…very complicated…"

"Then simplify it for us." Draco interjected, casting an eye over his weakened father.

"The Hallows belong to me…she's taken them from me…the only way I can stop her is to take them back. So, it has to be me to kill her."

"And what happens to that 'ultimate power'?"

"It ceases to exist." Harry told them.

"So, you knew about this? For how long?" McKinnon wondered.

"Only a few days…"

"Why didn't you stop her then?" Draco cried.

"Why didn't you?! Surely you knew about this?!" Harry argued.

"It was covered with ink for ages…she only just removed the stain today to see how to get the power. I tried to talk her out of it but she wasn't having any of it!"

"I could have stopped…I mean, we were…it's a long story but if we had killed Voldemort before her then she wouldn't have received these 'powers'…" Harry played along with Draco and McKinnon's belief about Onya's new abilities being just special powers not Death's counterpart.

"So…we're calling off the war?" Ron and Hermione had entered the clearing too now, Ron had put forward the query.

"I guess so…" Draco affirmed.

Harry knew that Draco would easily accept such a thing as a ceasefire because of his personality and nature and Harry knew he had only got involved with Onya to get revenge over him and Voldemort. McKinnon on the other hand was someone who had campaigned and slaughtered hundreds to get to where he was now. It was more than surprise to Harry when McKinnon replied stiffly, "She's obviously too powerful for her own good so just to stop her I guess I will have to agree to your terms…for now…"

McKinnon, though he appeared to agree to a ceasefire, appeared to have ulterior motive. He was hinting that after Onya was defeated that he'd return to his original state and possibly continue the war against the Ministry and the rest of the world.

"You have to agree something with us," Hermione suddenly put across to McKinnon.

"Excuse me." McKinnon spat at Hermione with a look of disgust.

"After Onya is dead you have to agree to call off your army and surrender to the Ministry." Harry knew Hermione was doing exactly the same as he would have done but he didn't have the energy or the courage to confront McKinnon with such a deal.

"And what do I get in return? A cell in Azkaban?!"

"If you and your army surrender and you help us defeat Onya, I'm sure Kingsley will arrange something for you that won't mean a cell in Azkaban…"

"Are you deranged?!" McKinnon interrupted her making Ron bite his lip and clench a fist, "With the number of people I've killed…how I broke out of the Australian Ministry…how I Imperiused Fudge and took dictatorial control of the country…how I built an army and waged a wizarding war worldwide…"

Harry did not feel any kind of remorse for McKinnon but pitied him in a way. He had committed so much evil yet was prepared to surrender his army and provide assistance in defeating Onya who had surely become the most powerful witch to of ever graced the earth…Death's Disciple…

"We'll discuss what'll happen to you after…we don't have time!" Harry exclaimed.

Draco nodded solemnly; McKinnon exhaled through his nostrils and hung his head.

"You've got to try and make your army surrender, McKinnon!" Harry began, "And somehow, Draco, you've got to stop Vo-!" the name got stuck in Harry's throat for a moment, "Voldemort's army going out of control! We need to move fast, these Death Eaters look like they're regaining consciousness and strength!" Harry gestured for him, Ron, Hermione, McKinnon and Draco to exit the clearing. Around the clearing the veiny, pale, debilitated Death Eaters were beginning to stir back to normal consciousness. For the last few minutes they'd been slowing pushing themselves off of the ground with frequent groans. Now, as Harry had begun devising a plan, the Death Eaters were awake and taking out their wands.

"How're we going about killing her?" McKinnon quizzed Harry.

"We'll think of that later! First we need to get out of here and call off the armies! For all we know she could be killing every single one of them right now!" Harry's statement then saw McKinnon, Ron and Hermione follow him back into the depths of the Forbidden Forest as the Death Eaters began to fire multiple curses in their direction. Draco eventually chased them though but was delayed by giving his mother a fleeting goodbye as she continued to care for his sickened father who was the only Death Eater still lay down. In the forest, Harry lead the way towards the entrance and back into the courtyard where they could hear the war continuing as if it had never stopped, which it hadn't, in their time in the forest. None of the sounds they heard and none of the sights they saw as they reached the opening to the forest were much different to what they left when entering the forest. There were no signs of any kind of special powers being used in the duels which lead Harry to believe Onya hadn't begun any kind of reign of terror of death and destruction onto the armies. People still died…Aurors, Death Eaters, pupils, professors…Acromantula crawled the courtyard, giants and trolls smashed their way through the castle, Dementors swept down upon unsuspecting victims, Harry also realised the introduction of Inferi which had appeared via the Black Lake, the place where Harry had burnt Dumbledore's portrait…

"Potter!" Harry had been distracted by the sight of the war, McKinnon pulled on his burnt jacket, "What're you doing?!"

"Go and call off your army!" Harry ordered him, "Malfoy keep clear of McKinnon's army and try to stop Voldemort's forces!" McKinnon and Draco then took out their wands and rushed off to disappear into the duelling crowds of wizards and witches. Harry then turned to Ron and Hermione.

"We need to find Onya before she starts killing people!" Ron and Hermione also took out their wands and together the trio followed in the steps of Draco and McKinnon to re-enter the battle. However, their path was blocked when the Death Eaters from the forest, excluding Narcissa and Lucius, burst out of the trees. Together they launched a melee of Killing curses which either rocketed off into the sky or bounced away on the concrete. Harry, Ron and Hermione continued to run, ducking and dodging as they went, as a shower of curses rained down upon them from the Death Eaters chasing them. After a minute or so of running, Harry, Ron and Hermione span around and shot back their hexes. Eventually, they managed to stun Augustus Rookwood and cause Wilkes to be stamped upon by a troll. With two of the Death Eaters down it was easier for the trio lose the others chasing them and allowed them to successfully access a corridor in the school without any major injuries.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione duck!" came a chorus of the voices belonging to George and Molly Weasley. Harry, Ron and Hermione aptly responded by diving to the ground before realising one of the shattered containers used to store house points, was now hurtling above their heads. The metal frame with its glass windows missing, struck down several Death Eaters who were running towards the trio. Without time to thank Ron's brother and mother, the trio turned a sharp left down the corridor where there was a hole in the side of it. Through it came a gang of six Inferi. An Inferius was a dead body reanimated by Dark Magic, Necromancy, in order to be a puppet to perform deeds for its creator. Similar to zombies, the Inferi slowly gravitated towards the trio with groaning, ragged breaths. Harry, after witnessing Dumbledore's defeat of the creatures two years previously, produced a ball of flames from the tip of his wand, "Confringo!" the jet of fire produced expanded across the width of the Inferi and set them alight. As the corpses began to turn to ashes, Harry, Ron and Hermione skidded across a pool of blood and towards the Grand Staircase. There, many sections of the staircase had been blown apart. Not many of the paintings which decorated the staircase had survived. In combat several wizards and witches duelled to the death. Harry, Ron and Hermione then accelerated into the duelling and up the staircase, blocking offensive spells. After a minute of running the trio avoided another pack of Inferi, simply defeated a lone Dementor and knocked down several centaurs, some had their bow and arrows taken by the Death Eaters or others in need of extra weaponry. Eventually, Harry realised, the trio had escalated their journey towards the Astronomy Tower. After minutes of duelling upon the staircase Harry, Ron and Hermione finally reached the Astronomy Tower.

The tower was an open veranda that overlooked the grounds and happened to be the highest place to be in Hogwarts. It was also where Draco failed to kill Dumbledore and Snape intervened and did it for him leaving him to believe the man was a traitor and a Death Eater, just for Harry to be provided otherwise. When, Harry, Ron and Hermione reached the Astronomy Tower it was empty at first. It seemed untouched by the war as if nobody had dared go near in case they were thrown off or they fell. Harry, Ron and Hermione collapsed onto the concrete floor and listened to the continuing soundtrack of war. Explosions rippled the air; there were screams that resembled the outcome of scratching fingernails against a chalk board. As the trio sat listening to people dying, they breathed heavily and nursed their minor injuries as they sat slumped against the short wall that surrounded the balcony. The time for the trio had to have a reprieve though was cut short as Onya Apparated directly in front of them facing the opposite direction. Unsure of what to do, the trio crawled speedily behind a block in the middle of the circular opening. By the time Onya had adjusted to her new surroundings, the trio were now hidden from plain sight as Harry noticed that the teenager's eyes owned no colour. Her eyes were just solid black now rather than it being light pouring through her sockets. As Onya silently span around and walked to all the edges of the tower, completely unaware of the trio being nearby, she admired something that glinted in the distance. Soon enough Onya's face was being shrouded in an orange light whose source could be seen rising. Daylight was coming; the morn of a brand new day had arrived. At first sight of the Sun's rising, Onya unsheathed the Elder Wand from her robes and ambled to the edge of the tower. Harry took out his own wand as the Disciple edged towards the perimeter of the tower. His breath became rattled and discordant, his palms began to sweat.

Then, Onya whipped around before Harry even got the chance to attempt to aim for her. She had the Elder Wand now pointing in the trio's direction, realising how they hid from her behind the wall.

"Peek-a-boo, I found you!" Onya cackled leaving Ron to gulp and Hermione to give Harry a fearful expression. Harry on the other hand had begun a countdown to ten on his fingers as Onya exclaimed, "I know you're there, Potter! Come out, come out wherever you are!"

Six. Five. Four.

"Ooh, Harry!"

Two. One.

"HARRY POT-!"

"BOMBARDA!" Harry, Ron and Hermione's joint spell casting saw Onya be propelled off of the Astronomy Tower with a large gust of wind causing her body to begin to spiral towards the ground. Harry rushed to the side of the tower to see whether Onya had hit the ground. Instead, as Harry peered over the side, he saw Onya spin the Elder Wand towards him as she fell and shot out ropes from the tip of her wand that seized hold of his torso and wrapped around him tightly before yanking him off the tower too. Harry's feet were dragged off of the concrete floor and was forced to drop, his arms and legs now bound to the rest of his body. The drop reminded Harry of the two times he had jumped out of Azkaban Prison. Wind rippled his cheeks and the cold air stung his skin as he free-fell towards the ground. Onya was just inches ahead of him now but once they met one another's level, the ropes that bound Harry slackened and untied themselves allowing Onya to grab Harry by the scruff of his neck and Disapparating seconds before they hit the grass and faced their inevitable death. Moments later after Disapparating, the two found themselves rolling onto the debris filled, cracked surface of the courtyard where Onya loosened her grip on Harry's shoulders allowing him to clamber to his feet which she copied. The two now faced one another in the courtyard but Onya was too quick for Harry and sent him flying onto his back with one flick of her wand. She then stood above his semi-conscious, weakened form on the ground and raised her arms in a victorious motion.

"Harry Potter!" Onya cried frustratingly blasting a part of the concrete into smithereens with her wand.

"Onya, don't do this!" Harry said imperatively to her but she issued a laugh at his suggestion.

"You were there weren't you?!"

"Were where?!"

"In the forest when I killed Voldemort! I thought I saw you and your friends!"

Harry knew somebody was bound to of seen them and so now that Harry was aware of her 'gift' she had become paranoid that they were out to get her which was true on a certain level, "Yes, yes, yes, okay! We were there!" Harry blurted out as the discomfort of having Onya's wand level to his head got to him.

"I assume you came to stop me?" Onya asked Harry as she jabbed the Elder Wand between his eyes, on the bridge of his nose.

"Nobody deserves that much power…!"

"How do you know about it? You know more than I know, I assume correctly, yes?!" Onya spat before delivering a hefty boot to Harry's face and slicing open his bottom lip.

"Yes!" Harry regurgitated a mouthful of blood onto the concrete.

"Well, you must be punished for your knowledge shouldn't you?!" Harry shook his head causing Onya to execute a slap onto his face which saw her dig her elongated nails into his cheek and drag them, scratching his face and causing him to bleed, "But you can withstand torture, can't you?!" Onya kicked him in the chest, causing him to topple onto his back, "So, let's torture other people?!"

Onya's blackened eyes gazed at Harry temporarily as she grimaced and turned to face the courtyard. Harry, weakened by the blows to his face and chest which winded him, was unable to regain his breath and pick himself up. Onya on the other hand raised the Elder Wand in the arm. She then performed her first piece of extreme Dark Magic. An array of flame coloured rays of light burst from the tip of the wand and scattered across the courtyard and fell like meteors. When they hit their targets such as Death Eaters or Aurors the people caught by the hex were instantaneously set alight and disintegrated into ash within time that was less than a second. When the hex hit that of a giant all that was left of it was its charred skeleton and pieces of its flesh. Whatever the spell was it could turn anything into nothing within a single second. Harry, horrified by the sights that he saw, ignored his lack of oxygen and the bruising on his face and chest, and rammed his body into Onya's. She fell down with him and soon enough he was on top of her.

"Ooh, wanna play it that way do you?!" Onya poked the Elder Wand in Harry's direction and send a stinging hex into the left side of his face causing him to cry out in agony and roll back onto the grass leaving Onya to get back onto her feet. Harry, trying to ignore the searing pain that burnt the flesh on one side of his face, managed to send an effective trip-jinx at Onya's feet making her crash into the ground again. Harry then stood up to defeat her when she rolled onto her back and used a non-verbal spell to catapult Harry backwards. Onya then dashed off into the crowd of duellers when Ron and Hermione came up behind a wounded Harry.

"What happened?!" Harry shrugged off Hermione's question.

"We saw what she did to those people…!" Ron's words were then lost.

"She's ran into the war, we've gotta find her!" Harry then hurried towards the main body of duellers where he last saw Onya disappear into. He was followed closely by Ron and Hermione.

Amongst the duellers Harry saw many more people that I knew were seriously injured which included Rolf Scamander who was being nursed by Luna and Mr Weasley. However, though the rate of deaths was lowering slightly, Harry did realise that Marietta Edgecomb had succumbed to her wounds and died in best friend; Cho Chang's arms. Harry continued his race through the war to find Onya when he inadvertently ran into Draco.

"Draco?!"

"I couldn't call them off!" he began to explain, "They wouldn't listen to me!"

"Right…!" Harry acknowledged. He wasn't expecting Draco to pull off such an act; he knew it'd be impossible for anyone to prevent the Death Eaters continuing a war.

"Where the hell's Onya?!" Draco inquired.

"We lost her! She's started killing! We don't know where she went!" Ron informed Draco.

"What do we do?"

"Look for her. D'you what happened to McKinnon?" Hermione said.

"No, he's probably just trying to do what I did but better! He is their leader after all!"

"Where'd you think Onya is th-?!"

BOOM!

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco flung themselves to the ground as a large section of wall from the school was detonated with a force that made its debris spring far and wide. Looking behind them, the four viewed Onya at the centre of the wreckage; she dropped her wand by her side. She then cast multiple Killing Curses at nearby wizards at random before casually stepping away from the damage and continuing her path up the corridor towards the Great Hall. The four, having regained their hearing from the noisy explosion, double checked they had their wands intact before heading back into Hogwarts. Once into the corridor they heard further explosions and Killing Curses being expelled by Onya onto the innocent. As Harry ran he realised how Onya's collection of souls was steadily rising, higher and higher, more souls that could possibly be consumed or lost forever…

"Watch out Potter!" it was professor McGonagall, accompanied by Argus Filch and Filius Flitwick. They had managed to animate the stone statues and the suits of armour in a similar way that they did in the previous war. Flitwick conducted the movement of the personified inanimate objects with his wand so that they went to attack a bunch of Death Eaters in the vicinity. McGonagall, after having transfigured the statues and armour, transfigured the portrait of a dragon into one that was real. Though small for a usual dragon, it was mighty powerful. Blood red with black talons, the dragon immersed some more Death Eaters within a gigantic ball of fire. Filch on the other hand joined the battle, using his old punishment tools like chains and whips threw and attacked with them while Mrs Norris his tabby cat meowed at his feet, remarkably untouched.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco continued to wage duels as they fought through the hordes of people to try and reach the Great Hall and with still no sign of Onya. As the four reached the Entrance Hall Harry spotted through a gap in the walls that Lee Jordan and George Weasley, reunited again, were up to a larger scale version of what could have been one of their old pranks. George it seemed had brought with him several Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous No Heat Wet Start Fireworks from an old batch of Wizard Wheezes' stock. The rockets were then released directly into the bodies of two giants. The ferocity of the rockets knocked down the two giants stone dead and as Harry slipped into the Entrance Hall he saw Lee and George share a high-five which gave Harry a sore pang of nostalgia.

In the Entrance Hall, Kingsley and Hagrid were the only two people present and alive. It seemed as though they'd recently exited a bed of rubble where they had been hiding. The bodies dotted around them were mostly Aurors and some Death Eaters, all deceased.

"Harry!" Hagrid issued a sigh of relief as he saw the teenager who ran into him for another back-breaking hug.

"What happened here, Hagrid?" Hermione quizzed him.

"That Onya…she killed all of 'em…" Hagrid seemed genuinely frightened, his thick eyebrows quivered above his cut-ridden visage, "Her eyes…they were black…she seemed so…powerful…"

"Don't worry, Hagrid, we're dealing with it," Ron told him.

"How do you intend to do such a thing?" Kingsley said removing his single earring with a bloodied, bitten hand.

"We have to kill her." Draco's voice was cold as he said this and with his intervening of the conversation, Hagrid and Kingsley realised he was present.

"What's he doing with you, Harry?" Hagrid's eyebrows furrowed, Kingsley's defeated expression turned sour.

"Harry…he's a Death Eater, that girl's 'friend'…!" Kingsley complained.

"No…" Harry who had not spoken until that moment kept his voice sounding as strong as possible, "He joined Onya and did all those things to get revenge over me and Voldemort. It's apparent to us that he's realised he's gone too far and wants to help us stop Onya. She's out of control."

"What has happened to her though?" Hagrid examined.

"It's a long story…" Ron wiped some blood off of his chin.

"And you have to…you know…?" Kingsley refrained from saying the verb 'to kill'.

"It's the only way," Harry explained, "She killed Voldemort. The powers she has are far too much for her and this world to handle, death is the only option."

"How're you going to go about doing this? Killing her…" Hagrid saw in Harry's eyes that he wasn't determined to do the deed and wasn't that kind of person and had never been. Harry knew he wasn't capable of killing Onya but he had to force himself to do it to save millions of lives…

"No idea."

"You can't go in there alone; it sounds like she's killed everybody in there." Kingsley informed the four who then ceased their talking to listen to the silence of the Great Hall. Its doors had been blocked by a cascade of rubble that wouldn't stop the sound coming through so it meant that nobody but Onya Lewis was alive in that room.

"Fine…you come with us on one condition," Harry reasoned for Kingsley and Hagrid to incline for him to continue, "I have to kill Onya. Agreed?"

"If you have to, Harry…" Hagrid accepted.

"Yes." Kingsley replied simply.

Harry and Ron then took a step back away from the rubble sealed entrance to the Great Hall before swinging their wands towards it and chanting, "BOMBARDA MAXIMA!" Within an instant, the rubble was blown apart leaving the entrance to the hall wide open for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Hagrid and Kingsley to walk into. As Kingsley had said, every single Auror, Death Eater, student, centaur, spider and Inferius was dead excluding Onya. The witch sat in the centre of the hall in what was used by the heads of Hogwarts to sit in during meal times. It had once been Dumbledore's high backed chair but now a teenage Onya sat slumped in it, her legs crossed. As the group of six entered the bombsite which used to be the dining hall for Hogwarts' staff and pupils, Onya looked upon them with her eyes. The eyes which did not own a pupil but just an entirely black ball roving around in a socket. She gave a half-hearted laugh and a sickening smile as the group moved towards her slowly, their wands (and umbrella) clenched tightly in their hands.

"Oh, Harry! You brought your friends this time round?!" Onya squealed slipping out of the chair to her feet, "Have you all come for the suicide party 'cos I only booked for this lot!" She pointed at the multiple corpses that lay in puddles of blood before her.

"This needs to stop." Harry told her.

Onya chuckled as she went to face Harry in between the chair and the group, "Sorry, what was that m'dear?!"

"This isn't you. This isn't Onya Lewis." Draco arbitrated.

Onya emitted another high-pitched giggle, "You're funny, you know Draco. Actually…that almost sounded like you cared about me for a moment…!"

"Who said I don't?" Draco's response left Onya's state of laughter to slowly morph into sarcasm and anger.

"You!" Onya pushed Harry aside before grabbing Draco by his robes and slamming him into the nearest wall. Being the Disciple didn't just improve her magical abilities but her physical attributes too. She had enough strength to push Draco part way up the wall, "I gave you my heart Mr Malfoy and you-!" the Elder Wand created a dome shaped dent in the wall next to Draco's head, "Did that! To me?! Rejected my only feelings! You've lied to me for all this time! You let me kiss you!" Onya's emotions had heightened due to her transformation. It seemed everything had done so. Though she was obviously upset by Draco's rejection of love and his deception, her anger overruled it and saw pick him up and throw him onto the ground to slide a metre or so.

"I'm sorry that I can't love a power-hungry, unstable maniac!" Draco spat as blood dripped from his freshly cut face which was caused by a sharp piece of wooden debris on the ground where Onya threw him.

Onya had stashed away her wand when she precipitously created a long, drawn out scream that echoed around the Great Hall. With the scream that reminded Harry of her time transforming into the Disciple, Onya's hands sparked… Draco then just got up in time as Onya fired balls of flame from her hands into the place where Draco had lay. Draco then scurried to re-join Harry and the others when Onya produced another blood-curdling screech and took out her wand to attempt to fire numerous Killing Curses in the direction of the group. The group though were aware of what Onya would do so were out of the Hall in seconds as she began her rain of curses. As Hagrid, the last to exit the Hall, launched a large boulder in Onya's way she gave a swift flick of her wand which saw the boulder be deflected towards the group. The boulder ended up breaking into hundreds of pieces on the Great Hall floor as the group sped back into the corridors of the school.

Part way down a corridor Harry shouted to the other five, "Let's split up! She'll be after all of us and it'll give us some time to think of how to stop her!" So, Hagrid and Kingsley went in opposite directions as Draco, apprehensive, rushed off in other direction and Ron and Hermione split forcibly from Harry together. Harry was now left alone in the middle of the corridor, alone, thinking of anything he could do to trap Onya, prevent her killing anyone else and then kill her himself. Harry decided to race forwards in the corridor for only a few seconds when he was held up by an abundance of Dementors. Harry had been able to tackle a small group of them assisted by Ron and Hermione previously but now the group was bigger and Harry was alone and in a weaker state. At the sight and feel of the Dementors Harry dropped to the ground, cold and miserable, his wand held feebly in his hand. He tried desperately to think of something happy enough to move the Dementors out of his path to run away from Onya but he couldn't muster the correct thoughts. Flashbacks of what happened in the Forbidden Forest plagued his mind and he felt like he had no happy memories left to be shared and used as a weapon. Harry decided to curl up against the cold and failed to even try and fight back but then it was done for him. The Dementors suddenly separated leaving Harry to regain some warmth and control over his feelings and memories. In the distance he saw Terry Boot and Dennis Creevey lowering their wands a silvery light disappearing from the tips. The only thought Harry could manage as he gave the two a wave of acknowledge and forced himself to carry on running was, _'I taught them well'_.

Harry reached the Transfiguration room when an Acromantula reared its ugly head into the door frame and Harry found himself alone in the classroom. He jumped across a couple of desks before reaching the back where there was a lone cupboard. It was just wide and tall enough for him to climb inside though he had to clear several black cloaks out of it first. Harry then plonked himself down in the cupboard and propped his knees up to his chin and began to think. It was difficult. The cries of pain and the crumbling of explosions wreaked the air as well as the continuing vibrations that shook the castle walls. Harry's thoughts were also confined to remembering events past and those yet to be which scared him. He thought placing himself in the confined space of the cupboard would help him process what to do about Onya but it didn't. Now, his thoughts and worries were now being squashed further together with added pressure to Harry's mind. The downfall of Voldemort, the creation of the Disciple, the mass of bodies that Onya had generated…too much was going completely wrong in Harry's liking. He had to kill Onya but was unsure of how to do so. Would a simple Killing Curse even be effective enough for whatever she had become? He didn't know. Such things weren't mentioned in his discussion with Ignotus in the Dream World. Would Onya die like a normal human or would she die in a similar way to Voldemort?

"Harry, are you in here?!" it was Onya. She had found him. And he, Harry, was still uncertain on his methods of murdering her. Would it work if he stepped out of the cupboard and shot a single Killing Curse at her? What extremes would he have to face to end her life, save others alive and those not.

"I know you're in there, Harry!" she sang chirpily, "Will I have to come and get you out and play?!" she mimicked a child's voice as she spoke down to him, "Doesn't little Harry not want to play anymore? Is he scared? Scared of the girly wirly? I promise I won't bite!"

Harry had enough of Onya's taunts so swung open the door of the cupboard just for her to be inches away from him. With a laugh she grabbed hold of his tee shirt and span on her heel and together they Disapparated. Seconds later, the pair landed with Onya on top of Harry, in a corner of the courtyard. As they rolled onto the grass, Harry tried to fire a stunning spell at Onya's ankle but she cleverly Disapparated to avoid it and Apparated just several metres away. Though this was a simple Disapparition technique, the first learnt when learning how to Apparate and Disapparate, Onya used it to her advantage as Harry began to try and attack the Disciple. From the moment he fell to the ground from Disapparating from the classroom, Harry's anger overcame his anxiety and he was now desperate to end his misery. Onya was his salvation from the madness he suffered internally. He was now spurred into the mood for murder. As soon as she Disapparated out of the way from his Stunning Spell he delivered an array of hexes in her direction. However, this was when she decided to dart out of their reach by Disapparition. Harry, now aware she was going to keep on using said trick attempted to recreate her movements and chase her via Disapparition. Though he'd travelled short distances before, doing so repeatedly was incredibly intricate and saw a massive drain of energy on the body. However, Harry persevered with it and so from that point, Onya and Harry Apparated to various areas of the school duelling. Their locations ranged from the half-destroyed Grand Staircase to the Potions' dungeons and back to the Astronomy Tower. There, Onya and Harry both dropped their wands from a disarming charm that worked both ways. The wands rolled to the side of the tower as Onya, enraged, dived on top of Harry tried to hammer her then fiery fists into his face. Harry on the other hand was able to trip her up with his trainer and pin her down onto the concrete before she kneed him hard in his privates. Harry, feel quite sickly and winded from the kick was left rolling in agony on the ground. Onya on the other hand crawled to recover the Elder Wand. Both that wand and Harry's were close to the edge of the tower and close to rolling off and falling. Onya was close to fingering hers when a wind blew both wands rolling off of the edge. Onya, her hands coated in flames and her black eyes lit up with a twinkling of blood red, stood up and spectated as hers and Harry's wand fell towards the grass. Then, as Onya omitted one of her usual screams, Harry jumped to his feet, barged into Onya and wrapped his arms around her as they both toppled over the edge of the tower.

Entwined with one another the two hurtled towards the ground, faster and faster, Onya kicked and punched and screamed for Harry to release her but he would not budge. Instead, she jerked him sideward as they were about to hit the surface of the courtyard and they Disapparated together. They Apparated into the centre of the courtyard where Onya felt like she was being wrenched off of Harry. When he opened his eyes he saw Mrs Weasley dragging Onya off of Harry before pinning her to the ground and applying a clout around her head as Mrs Weasley bellowed in Onya's face, "BEG!" to which Onya responded with a cackle, Harry remained on the ground and left Mrs Weasley to intimidate Onya, "BEG FOR MY FORGIVENESS! YOU KILLED MY DAUGHTER! YOU'VE KILLED SO MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE! BEG FOR MY FORGIVENESS YOU HEARTLESS, INSANE BITCH!"

Onya replied by spitting a mouthful of saliva into Mrs Weasley's eye blinding her momentarily as Harry sprung to his feet and yanked Onya to her feet before realising the pair of them had their wands missing near to the bottom of the Astronomy Tower. It left Harry defenceless and Onya only just weakened but not fully as she could still create deadly energy from her fingertips. Harry, in the realisation he had no weapon to kill Onya with; he dropped her to the ground with a _thump_. Harry soon realised this was a huge mistake as Onya shot fireballs from her palms which rocketed over Harry's shoulders and on instinct he kicked her in the jaw. Mrs Weasley then offered her to wand out to Harry, "I noticed you needed it more than me."

Harry looked from the wand to Ron and Ginny's mother, "Thanks…"

"Do you have to do this?" she asked him.

"I don't have a choice." He told her. Mrs Weasley was due to hand over her wand to Harry when she had to drop to the ground with the arrival of another fireball from a recovering Onya. Harry then turned ran towards her and they ended up Apparating into the Entrance Hall. Onya using her hands was able to produce a wave of energy that rippled the walls of the room before they began to break and fall towards Harry who tried to avoid them. Harry swerved out of the way of the falling bricks as he got closer and closer to Onya. Nevertheless, she grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and flung him into the mouth of the Great Hall before stepping into it herself. Behind her the cascade of bricks continued but also, a wizard struck her over the head with a chunk of rubble causing her to collapse onto the floor. The wizard who had managed to hit her was McKinnon.

"Where've you been?!" Harry shouted at him.

"Trying to call off my army but they're having none of it! They think I'm Imperiused!" McKinnon dropped the rock he had attacked Onya with.

"I lost my wand…" Harry announced.

"Nothing to kill her with hey?" McKinnon brandished his own wand in the air.

"Yeah, something like that…"

"I SHALL NOT DIE!" Onya's exclamation saw windows shatter and debris crumble into dust; she appeared to pulsate with a transparent energy, "I WILL KILL EVERYTHING!" Onya span towards McKinnon before he could defend himself. Onya repelled him into the wall at the entrance to the Great Hall before turning back on Harry, "YOU WILL ALL DIE AND DEATH SHALL REIGN SUPERIOR!" Harry Disapparated at Onya's words in the middle of the Grand Staircase. As he acclimatised to his new, familiar location, he desperately ran several ideas through his head on how to kill Onya. At the same time, Draco knocked down a Death Eater with a Stunning Spell before entering the corridor below the staircase. He spotted Harry and gave his head a disappointed shake, "They can't be stopped! Is she still alive?!" Harry nodded as multiple suits of armour were launched across the area where Draco stood. Moments later, after her avoided being hit by the objects, Onya strutted towards him, deliberately being ignorant of Harry's presence on the empty staircase. From what Harry saw there were no fighters in this area of the castle as many were dead but most now fought in the streets of Hogsmeade and that of the courtyard. At the stairs all who stood there, alive, were Onya, Draco and Harry. Onya's energy relaxed and she did scream her next words, "Draco…you're still…alive?"

"Last time I checked I was." Draco answered shortly.

"You know I have to kill you, don't you?"

"Someone can't take rejection, can they?"

"It isn't that stupid boy," Onya smiled, "Everybody must die at my hand."

Harry remained silent as Onya engaged with Draco in what was a calm debate.

"Why?" Draco attempted to contact her morals in his following interrogation.

"That's what I was made to do." Onya said in a breathy voice.

"Made? As in, you were specially created to do such a job or you were forced?"

"I am a special creation, can't you see?"

"All I see…" Draco's eyes roved from Onya's toes to her head, "Is evil."

"You're wrong. I am beautiful."

"Only somebody with a sick imagination could come up with such a thing."

"You call me sick?"

"Not you. Not Onya Lewis, no, the thing that made you the way you have become."

"I adore what I have been granted with!" Onya giggled.

"That isn't your mind saying such things! The Onya I knew before this-!"

"DON'T YOU DARE!" Onya's voice rang out eerily in the castle, "I AM NOT THAT PATHETIC HALF-BLOOD ABOMINATION ANYMORE!"

"Abomination? The only abomination I see is the Onya you have become."

"This Onya is a great servant to her master, her previous form was so undesirably weak!"

"More like she was vulnerable," Draco began, "A lost, hopeless, neglected, unloved little girl who tried to make a name for herself and take on the world, it all went so terribly wrong…"

"I have never felt so powerful! This world will be mine!"

"I'm sorry but you can't have it. This isn't you. This isn't the girl that loved me."

"She killed, more than I have-!"

"She felt she had to, she was unstable, mentally dysfunctional…you on the other hand are taking away innocent lives for your game!"

"Why do you stand up for what I used to be? You hated me and hate me more now. What you say will never stop from helping my master consume these worlds!" Onya's words rattled in Harry's brain as he thought he saw something in the corner of his eye.

"I did hate you. It wasn't until I truly understood you…but Onya, I'm sorry. I understand why you did the things you did and this is not who you are!"

"Onya Lewis does not require your petty pity Draco. There's nothing you can do. I am here to end everything!"

Harry realised he wasn't imagining things so turned to look at the ground to see what had caught his attention.

"Nobody is going to let you do such a thing! This world will not surrender to you, it will fight!"

"And I shall win said fight!"

"So this is what you have become, huh? A puppet for a bigger plan? Tell me! I can see the truth is close at hand!"

Onya took in a deep breath, "My master has grown weary of the deception caused by magic and it is up to me to aid him in his mission to reinstate order!"

"Who is your master?!"

"That of Death. He is who the guardian of the past and the transporter of the old! His deserved revenge will reap this planet and cause its extinction!"

"You speak in riddles, Onya!" Draco stamped his feet in anguish, "It means nothing to me! But from what I know, if your master's hatred for magic is true then why does he grant you with ultimate powers to help him?!"

"His intent is pure, I am not to question the omnipotence of him."

Draco issued a strangled fit of laughter, "You speak of his plans to end the deception of magic yet you can't see how he's deceiving you! Granting you ultimate power to do his bidding before you end up dead too!"

"I SHALL LIVE FOREVER!"

Harry took hold of the object and that of another nearby and quickly estimated his chances of using the equipment appropriately and correctly.

"Nobody lives forever! That's a fantasy! You're just a piece in your master's games with the world!"

"I will devour this world and you shall be my first victim!"

"Well let's pray the real Onya prevents you because I know, I know that deep down in that delusional mind of murderous thoughts that that one strong feeling still remains and that the Onya inside can fight it! Though she wanted power and people to die around her it wasn't intentional for something like this! She would regret this and she wouldn't want me to die!"

"Your words mean nothing! That version of Onya ceases to be a memory in your mind!" Onya gestured wildly to Draco's forehead, beneath which were his watery eyes. Harry on the staircase adjusted the weapon and made sure it was secure enough and safe enough to use for application.

"Oh, yeah?! I know different! I know that one thing is more powerful than Death and you want to know what that is?!" Onya looked slightly startled as Draco continued his rant and Harry listened keenly as he prepped his weapon and knew the answer to Draco's question as he had been taught it so many times with Dumbledore.

"NOTHING IS AS POWERFUL AS DEATH!"

"LOVE, ONYA, LOVE! LOVE IS MORE POWERFUL! YOUR LOVE FOR ME! ONYA, PLEASE, IF YOU'RE IN THERE BREAK FREE AND COME BACK TO ME! TO DRACO, YOUR LOVE!"

"DEATH WILL NOT SURRENDER! YVONNYA LEWIS CEASES TO EXIST! YOUR LOVE IS FUTILE AND EASILY DEFEATABLE! ONLY I, THE DISCIPLE, CAN LIVE!"

Onya's legs gave out on her and her body collapsed onto the concrete floor as she screamed in agony and a pool of blood began to form from the wound in her chest. The weapon Harry had discovered was a discarded bow and arrow that he found lying beside a mutilated chestnut coloured centaur. Harry had picked up the bow, wiped off some blood from the string before slotting the solitary arrow into the bow. With his right eye closed, Harry aimed the tip of the arrow towards Onya's heart and had pulled back the string of the bow, bringing back the bow. Harry, after seconds of hesitation, let his finger slip from the bow and the arrow was released and its head plunged into Onya's chest. The teenager immediately dropped to the ground writing in dire pain as Draco after a drawn-out cry, knelt beside Onya. Harry clumsily hurried his way down to the bottom of the staircase to stand several metres away from Onya's body. Harry had to kill her. He knew he would have to eventually but managed to gain the courage in order to select the bow and arrow as his weapon and sling the arrow into Onya's heart. He had been too scared of himself and the results to send an arrow into her cranium. He knew an arrow to her head would of killed her instantly but he couldn't face it and wanted to see if something he suspected would work. It did.

In Draco's arms the black in Onya's eyes faded and returned back to normal as he body began to quiver and sweat and she burst out into tears. Onya's skin turned very pale, very soon as blood seeped through her robes and onto the ground she lay on. Draco was crying hysterically as he gingerly stroked Onya's deep incision and gave Harry a brief look of anger. Draco then took hold of one of Onya's trembling hands, "Onya…?" he said hoarsely.

"Draco…" her voice was quiet and hollow.

"Is that you, Onya?"

"I came back…"

"So, she's gone…?"

"Forever."

They shared a meaningful look, "She died?"

"Just like I'm going to…" Onya winced as she stroked her wound too, the arrow still wedged into her body.

"I won't let you."

"What happened to you? I thought you hated me."

"I was…" Draco wiped tears from his eyes, "wrong…wrong about you.."

"I killed so many people, Draco."

"You couldn't stop yourself."

"I was going to kill you."

"Don't say these things."

"I'm sorry, I really am, I didn't want to be like this! I want to go back and start again! I want to be normal! It isn't fair! Why did I do it, Draco, why?!" Onya sobbed.

"Don't blame yourself…" Draco said emptily.

"There's no else to blame it on. It's too late now…"

"It's never too late!"

"I'm going to die here, Draco."

"I won't let you."

"Why're you saying these things?!" Onya exclaimed.

"What things?!"

"Like you care!"

"I do!"

"Since when…?!"  
"Does it matter?! We've both done so much wrong to this world, together we can redeem ourselves! Start again!"

"I'm going, Draco, you can't stop that…"

"But I think I love you…"

There was a silence between the two as Harry shed a tear and leant across a pile of rubble, feeling somewhat guilty for the thing he had done. Except what he had done had saved millions of lives and the souls that Onya had collected. Once she died Harry would be granted the ability to decide those souls' fate and his decision had rested upon bringing them back…bringing Ginny back…

"You think you love me?!"

"I do love you!"

"And me too, I love you too!" Draco squeezed Onya's hand and she made a small smile as her eyelids began to flicker and her muscles started to settle.

"Don't leave me!"

"I've done so much wrong, Draco! I'm not scared of death so you'll never see me again! All I'm scared of is being without you!"

"I wish we could make things better!"

"You can." Harry intercepted.

Draco and Onya gazed at him, teary eyed as Onya's breathing pattern became irregular.

"Everybody Onya killed had their souls collected, probably into the Resurrection Stone. When you die Onya I get to choose what to do with those souls. I'm bringing them back. Your death does something good, Onya…you save people!"

Onya sighed in relief and in happiness and shock at this revelation, Draco then whimpered, "You see…you can end by doing something good!"

"Take out the arrow, Draco…"

In a serious wound such as Onya's, the weapon or object used to puncture the body being left in slows down the loss of blood providing a chance of reviving somebody. Relieving the body of Onya of the arrow would see her blood levels plummet and she would die almost instantly.

"Are you sure…?" Draco asked her.

"Definitely."

Draco glimpsed at Harry who dropped his head to stare at the ground as Draco slowly wrapped his fingers around the butt of the arrow and clenched it.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered as he pulled up the arrow out of Onya's heart and let a gushing of crimson escape her body.

Onya uttered one final sentence before her convulsions and breathing slowed down enough to stop, "I did something good…" she exhaled her last breath and her hand fell out of Draco's to hit the floor. Her chest stopped rising and her eyes remained still until Draco's shivering fingers tenderly shut her eyelids.

Yvonnya Lewis, the Disciple, was dead at last. Something minute then forced Onya's lips apart from the inside of her mouth and out protruded the shrunken Resurrection Stone. The object began to rise from her pursed lips into the air before returning to its original size. The stone also began to vibrate before the crack that it bore opened as streams of white light flood from out of Onya's body and flew into the stone. Then, the stone hovered towards Harry before dropping softly into his outstretched palm. He felt that it was cold and thought it had to be alive with the humming sensation and noises that it produced. Harry then felt information be uploaded into his head as the Stone wriggled in his hand. Now that Onya was dead, Harry had been given the duty to decide what to do with the souls that she had collected. In his mind he had decided to bring back the people that Onya had killed and with that single thought an incantation lead itself to Harry's lips for him to speak the words aloud. As Harry released the Stone and allowed it to float a few metres away from his forehead, he saw his wand materialise onto the ground where he picked it up. After picking up his wand which he raised towards the Resurrection Stone, Harry muttered the following;

"With the death of the Disciple brought in battle, I hereby reclaim ownership of my previously owned Hallows as I speak to thee as the defeater of your loyal follower. As I have saved the souls of those whose were not yours to take, I request the return to life of all who came into passing by the hand of Yvonnya Lewis, to continue their existences from whence they left it until the day they die once more and for eternity. Along with said request, shall those of afflicted past lives, who she resurrected, be returned to their former state."

The familiar gust of wind that Harry knew was coming saw him dive to the ground just in time as the sudden wave of air flung Draco onto his back unconscious. As the bitingly, icy winds raged the Grand Staircase blowing off portraits and railings, the ground shook like a high scaling earthquake had hit the entire school. Harry felt the glass in his lenses shatter as the concrete beneath his face rumbled so much that parts of it cracked and a couple of steps crumbled into dust. As the floor shook violently and the wind uprooted various objects dotted around the staircase, the Resurrection Stone span anti-clockwise in a circular motion faster and faster. After what felt like minutes, the Stone flipped so that the open crack faced the ground over the side of the staircase. Though the spinning Stone already owned a silvery glow, a large vacuum of bright white light shot out of it and struck the concrete splitting it. From the depths of the cylindrical shaft of dazzling light, multiple orbs of light were spat out in numerous directions. As these orbs came to rest, levitating over the ground as the Stone continued to spin, they began pulsating and growing as silhouette shadows began to emerge upon the polished surface of the corridor. From where the shadows of what appeared to be humans began to form at the feet, three-dimensional shapes were beginning to form. Eventually toes were shaping themselves onto the ground along with feet and legs and waists and this continued! Eventually after torsos, fingers, arms, shoulders and necks were made soon enough so were heads and the heads then took upon faces. As eyes, noses, ears, mouths, hair and much more began to take shape upon the newly formed bodies, the wind began to die down. As it's force relaxed and the intensity of the light vacuum soon became transparent and disappeared, the shaking came to a halt as the Resurrection Stone, as the final souls began to finish off recreating people, closed. Soon enough everything settled and the Resurrection Stone sealed itself up before neatly placing itself back into Harry's enclosed fist. With the vacuum of light gone and not obscuring Harry's vision, through his blurred eyes (his glasses being broken) he looked upon the scene afore him from the staircase. From what he saw in front of him, every single person Onya had ever killed now stood by him alive…GINNY!

Harry hastily repaired his glasses using his wand before adjusting them on his face so that he was able to view what now stood before him. At least over a hundred people now stood before him but the majority were not Harry's priority. His priority was Ginny and he began to do anything he could possibly do so to find her. Harry rushed down the remaining steps of the staircase before launching himself into the crowd of freshly resurrected wizards, witches and Muggles. Harry didn't know where to look as the crowd of people (all naked) began to smile, cheer, laugh, cry and scream as they realised what was going on. How they had died and were now back alive in the ruins of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as the third Wizarding World War raged nearby. Harry pushed and shoved his way through the throng of them, accidentally dropping his wand and the Resurrection Stone as he did so. As he made his way through the people he had returned to life he recognised various faces who Harry had seen Onya kill. However, he wasn't focused on seeing these people properly yet. All his mind could think about was Ginny! Ginny was alive! Alive! She had died at the mercy of Onya's Killing Curse in Azkaban and had fallen to her death before Harry could spend her last moments with him. He'd cradled her corpse in his hands as Kingsley had tried to drag him away. Now, Harry had saved her soul and brought her back but he couldn't find her! He had to find her, and touch her, smell her, kiss her, be with her…he was desperate, he couldn't hang on any longer. He began to scream her name as he was overwhelmed by the mass of people who he'd resurrected. "GINNY! WHERE ARE YOU?! GINNY! GIIIIINNNNYYYY! GI-!"

"Harry…?"

Harry had fallen out of the crowd of wizards and witches and crashed to the concrete floor when the soft, familiar voice crept out from amongst the shadows in order to contact him. Harry looked up from where he lay on the ground and stood at his feet, her arms crossed tightly against her exposed areas, was Ginny…her silky red hair fell down her back…her brown eyes glinted in the morning sunlight…her skin was unblemished excluding the freckles that decorated her face, her beautiful face…as she smiled, dimples formed at the corners of her mouth…Harry's mouth went dry. He trembled with nervousness and shock as he forced himself off of the floor to stand, a smile was forcing itself onto his face as he picked up a nearby pile of robes and gingerly handed them over towards Ginny, who still smiling, slipped them on allowing her to drop her arms by her side and look Harry in the eye…Harry's heart rate accelerated, his palms became sweaty and for what felt like the first time in so long…a single, broad smile which went from ear to ear was made on Harry's face as tears streamed from his tingling eyes…Ginny was alive! She wasn't dead! The guilt that had plagued Harry for weeks now lifted and what Harry saw as the main source of happiness in his life returned and re-lit him inside. Things around him were bound to be dreadful at that point in time but he was too happy to understand those things. Harry had led himself to believe that there was no way of bringing Ginny back and had always wondered how he'd be able to recover from his loss. Ginny's presence made endorphins consume Harry's conflicting emotions and he felt himself strengthen mentally, his courage and bravery now conserved and his fear and anxiety placed behind him. Harry had been so miserable, so pessimistic and so lonely without Ginny that he'd been struggling to find the entire point in fighting. He had had nothing to fight for in Ginny's temporary relief from the world Harry lived in. Harry knew that the war was far from over at the point but Ginny being back installed into him a desire to do something. He knew he had been indifferent and disconnected from everything that had been happening. He knew lives had been endangered and ended and that the livelihood of the worlds he had lived in were at stake but his duty to protect them wasn't fully integrated into his mind. He knew he had to fight and do anything he could to preserve whatever good was left but his passion to campaign to free the world of the evil that punished it was absent with Ginny's death. Harry's fight had left with Ginny but now she was back. She was alive and stood before him, smiling, like she had never left him. Harry and Ginny shared a minute's long stare where the pair cried and smiled in silence. Ginny then lifted and opened up her arms and with some hesitancy, Harry then rushed into her arms and gripped her tightly around the waist. As he embraced her he felt a rush of warmth run over his body as he breathed in the scent of strawberries that emanated from her luscious, locks of ginger. Harry then ran his fingers through her hair before placing his hand behind her head and tilting it towards him and locking his lips onto hers. They kissed…longer and more passionately than they had ever done so…

"G-G-G-Ginny…?" Harry simpered through a mouthful of tears as they split their lips.

"Harry…?" Ginny replied gently rubbing a tear from out of his eye.

"Y-y-you're r-r-really b-back…?!"

"I never left…" Ginny squeezed him in their hug.

"D-D-D-Don't l-leave m-me again!"

"I won't…"

"Y-you p-p-promise…?!"

"I do."

"I l-love y-you!"

"I love you more!"

Harry dropped his head into Ginny's shoulder and continued to sob, "I c-can't believe you're b-b-back…!"

"Neither can I," Harry felt Ginny's tears tickle the back of his neck as he regulated his voice so that it returned to near enough its normal quality.

"I missed you."  
"I remember everything, Harry…"

Harry looked up from Ginny's shoulder and looked into her eyes, "What do you remember, Ginny?"

"Dying…" she sighed sorrowfully.

"What do you remember from it?"

"I remember going to save that man…how Onya's curse got me…I died while I was falling didn't I? One of my last memories is of you, Harry…we looked at each other didn't we…? As I fell…?"

Harry nodded jerkily. He couldn't forget the moment. The moment when Ginny hurtled through the air out of the prison as the lights left her eyes as she store into Harry, "I can't forget…"

"What happened to me?"

Harry gulped before he spoke as the memories of what happened after Ginny's abrupt death caught up with him and more tears swam to his eyes, "You fell into the sea…" Harry remembered the cold depths of the black water and how he struggled to swim deep enough to cover what was left of Ginny's body, "I brought you back…" Harry saw in his mind's eye, his own hands dragging out Ginny's corpse to the shore, her eyes shut firmly, "There was nothing I could do…"

"It doesn't matter, I'm back now…"

"I'm never letting you go…"

"I don't understand though…how am I back?" Harry looked down into Ginny's eyes before replying shortly.

"I'll explain later…"

"You see there's a war on."

Harry had been interrupted and not by Ginny but another familiar voice instead which came from behind him. Harry slackened his grip on Ginny to turn to face Jeremiah McKinnon who stood nearby ogling the pair hugging. Now that they had separated Harry looked at McKinnon.

"Harry…?" Ginny began.

"No, he's working with us…" Harry cut across her.

"'Was' working with us, you mean…" McKinnon corrected Harry for him to pull a bemused expression.

"I don't understand."

"Onya's dead. I only agreed to surrender in order to stop her. Now that she's dead our alliance is terminated. The war continues, Harry Potter, and you've just had both yourself and Miss Weasley surrender to be my first blood of this war."

McKinnon then held his wand aloft in the pair's direction.

"So…who's first?"


	33. Repentance

"No-one!" Harry and Ginny Disapparated as a Killing Curse streaked past their heads after emerging from McKinnon's wand. The couple landed seconds later in a secluded corner of the courtyard. Harry hastily regained his balance before he lost control and started kicking the broken ground apart. Ginny, startled by McKinnon's abrupt select of curse and Harry's following outburst, stood by as her boyfriend caused chunks of earthy debris to crumble into dust.

"What's going on?!" Ginny cried.

"It's complicated and a long story which I'll explain later but all you need to know is that Onya became more powerful than anything that has ever walked the earth, okay?!" Harry rubbed his eyes furiously as an explosion nearby made his right ear buzz.

"Have you stopped her?!"

"Yeah…Draco was with her body at the staircase near to you…"

Ginny looked stunned, her eyes wide as she said, "Who killed her?"

Harry was hesitant, he gulped and grabbed his left hand to prevent it from trembling like a leaf, "Me…"

Ginny was horrified, her eyes lit up in shock at the sin Harry had fallen into, "With the Killing Curse?!" she murmured emptily.

"No…" Harry scratched the back of his neck as he sweated cold beads in nervousness.

"Then what?!"

"Bow and arrow."

Harry's admittance of committing the murder of Onya (an image of her face looming in and out of his consciousness) was now haunting him as he told the newly resurrected Ginny of his troubles, "It was necessary though, yeah?" she asked, attempting to remain calm and be understanding of why Harry did what he did.

"Everyone she brought back died and everybody she killed came back…that's why you're here."

Ginny acknowledged the truth for a moment before questioning, "What's going on with McKinnon?"

"We had a truce," Harry told her, "He failed to help us stop Onya by calling off his army but he didn't manage it…"

"His army?!"

Ginny was unaware of the war as she had been dead during its creation and progression and so it was up to Harry to quickly explain it to her, "Voldemort and McKinnon both built up armies and started a Death Eater civil war worldwide. Whoever won the ruins of both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds was given the right to own them and have the permission to execute me…"

"You found out I guess?"

"The Aurors, the professors, the students…it's all been prepared…we were just waiting for it all to start and when it did we were ready to fight."

Ginny seemed to be absorbing the new information quite readily, her face was white and her expression blank as she continued to interrogate Harry, "So the main battle's come to Hogwarts, again…? Who's winning?"

"Nobody."

"How's the death toll?"

"Too high."

"Anybody we know?"

"Too many."

Harry then broke down to Ginny the names of those who had died, leaving her to become teary but appearing to be resilient and strong, "Those deaths weren't fair…" was all she could manage.

"I know…I know…" Harry patted her shoulder and shed a tear himself as Ginny sobbed silently into her robes.

"And Voldemort? You haven't said a thing, Harry…"

Harry again was hesitant. He had been dreading the moment when he would have to accept his undeserved triumph and come to realise that his mortal enemy, Tom Marvolo Riddle, otherwise known as Lord Voldemort was now dead. Harry hadn't been able to end the life of his opponent personally but had watched as the broken man disintegrated into nothingness before his eyes.

"Onya killed him." Harry stated.

Ginny looked at Harry with an look of understanding as she wiped the remainder of her tears away from her pale visage, "What happened?"

Harry then delved into the tale of how Ron, her brother, had been devoted to the idea of delivering the final blow himself in the clearing in the Forbidden Forest. Then, how Onya had snatched this moment away by executing Voldemort with a single Killing Curse that saw his body turn to dust and Harry's nemesis had been defeated for the last time.

"What about the others she resurrected? The Death Eaters I mean."

Harry had taken them into consideration as Onya's life ebbed away. Her death didn't just grant Harry access to the souls she had collected but returned everyone she had ever brought back to their previous state. Voldemort's main body of Death Eaters, his most loyal, had succumbed to death once more and permanently. As Draco had held a dying Onya in his arms, his father Lucius had received the same fate of his former master Voldemort. First a skeletal form…then dust…then nothing, most likely to be in Narcissa's arms. Would Lucius' death prompt Draco to change his mind and come after Harry, joining McKinnon's ranks again?

"So…our main threat is…?" Ginny speculated, awaking Harry from his internal dilemma.

"McKinnon…he leads the opposing army…he's going to try and take down this world and the Muggles' and make himself a dictator of it all!" Harry told Ginny of McKinnon's evident motif.

"We have to stop him." Ginny cricked her neck and rubbed her hands together.

"But how?!" Harry took hold of his wand and held tight to it.

"We fight till we find him and when we do find him he will be stopped!" Ginny spotted a lone wand nearby and pocketed it quickly before turning to Harry.

"D'you think we can do this? Me and you?"

Ginny, who had turned to start walking away from where they stood, faced Harry with a sombre look before omitting; "No…not me and you. You and them." Ginny gestured behind Harry and where he looked he spotted Ron and Hermione.

"GINNY?!" Ron and Hermione chorused, their faces reflected Harry's previous expression of jubilation and shock at the sight of Ginny being alive. The two raced towards her and pulled her into a tight, joyous group hug while Harry stood to the side with a little grin on his bloodied face. Eventually after some tears were shed and Ron kissed his sister on her forehead, the trio divided and remembered Harry's presence again.

"You did it…?" Ron spluttered.

"Yeah…" Harry sighed plucking several splinters out from his wrist.

"How did you…you know…kill her, I mean, there was so much blood, Harry." Hermione's question was rewarded with an answer which saw Harry let both her and Ron know of what happened. How Harry had temporarily lost his wand and had to kill Onya with a bow and arrow before he brought Ginny and the others back with his wand which materialised before him.

"We heard screams coming from the staircase and we thought something was weird was going on when we thought we saw Xenophilius Lovegood coming out from that direction…" Ron's voice was portrayed with exasperation.

"He's back then…? So it did…work?!" Harry gave a chuckle of relief at the knowledge Luna's father had been returned to her.

"From what we saw the people you brought back were running away like they were scared, what happened?" Hermione enquired.

"McKinnon turned up and tried to kill me and Harry." Ginny's assertion puzzled Ron and Hermione who instantly looked into the event.

"McKinnon surrendered though? He was on our side?" Ron was simply confused at what had happened.

"He only joined forces with us to kill Onya…that's all…now both Voldemort and she's gone he's taking the window of opportunity to win the war and bring hell down on earth." Harry explained.

"What do we do?" Hermione applied her curio.

"I think the only thing we can do is win the war ourselves and either imprison or-" Harry was then interrupted by Ginny.

"Kill him!"

Ginny's words resonated in the morning air as the four looked at each other, secretly devising their own plans in their minds.

"We found Draco by the way," Hermione notified Harry and Ginny, "That's how we knew about Onya. He was hiding himself and her body behind some rubble."

"He was probably hiding from McKinnon like us. He'll be after Draco too." Harry said.

"He looked a wreck…" Ron mentioned.

"Turns out that had some sort of unrequited love for one another…" Harry told them.

"In a way it's sick…" Hermione described it, "Yet…sort of, poignant. Two teenagers who made all the wrong decisions, I guess."

The other three agreed with her statement, "I say we go after McKinnon ourselves." Ron recommended.

"That's completely barbaric." Hermione snapped at him.

"No, no, not like that! I didn't mean like we all go straight up to him and duel him, no! I say me and Hermione distract him, Ginny you need to just stay out of the way as your not in the fit state to risk your life again, and Harry…well…you're the one who needs to stop him." Ron delivered his hastily simplistic plan.

"I'm not staying out of this just because-!" Ginny retorted.

"Because what?! You died?! That's exactly why you can't be a part of this, Ginny! We're not risking your life again, alright?! No arguments!" Ron shouted back at her for her to obey.

"I'm still fighting though…you can't stop me doing that."

"But Ginny-!"

"But nothing, I'm fighting!"

Ginny then gave Harry a prolonged kiss on the lips and as he squeezed her hand he said, "Be careful."

"Don't worry about me, Potter," she winked.

"Just…don't get yourself killed, Weasley" Harry and Ginny snorted with a short burst of laughter.

"Good luck," Ginny planted a kiss on Harry's forehead before giving Ron and Hermione a joint hug and giving them a fleeting goodbye before jogging out into the distance before turning into the body of war, Harry was left with a pain in his heart as the worry about Ginny's safety begin whirring in his brain.

"How'd you propose we stop McKinnon then?" Harry turned to Ron and Hermione.

"Well," Ron smirked as he removed the Deathly Hallows from his jacket pockets, "I think these will do the trick."

Harry's jaw dropped at Ron's recovery of the Hallows, "Where did you find these?"

"Draco recovered them from Onya's body, he was adamant we took them and gave them back to you," Hermione explained.

"But how do you expect us to use the Elder Wand and Resurrection Stone?" Harry complained.

"We're not using the wand and the stone obviously…just the Cloak." Ron picked up the Invisibility Cloak and tossed it to Harry.

"This?!" Harry unfolded the cloak before his eyes. As Harry had grown both in height and weight since the last time he had worn the cloak a year ago he was now too tall for using the item, "I'm too big for it now. He'll spot me a mile off, Ron!"

"Oh, Harry, don't you learn anything!" Hermione whipped out her wand and seized the cloak before murmuring, "_Engorgio!_" the Invisibility Cloak then expanded in size so that it would cover Harry's entire body, feet included.

"Oh…right…" Harry was disappointed at himself for not realising he could do such a thing, "I thought the Cloak was impenetrable to spells."

"It was, Harry, was," said Hermione. Both Ron and Harry shot her bemused glances.

"Was?!" Ron exclaimed.

"Sorry, what?" Harry queried.

"Well, once everything with Onya has passed I assumed that the Hallows' life-cycle's complete. From everything you've taught us about them, Harry, I thought the Cloak wouldn't be as powerful anymore considering you've beaten Death and everything…weakened him, so to say…"

"Right…" Harry didn't try to think about the events that had passed and the Hallows' importance and so decided to pretend that the Invisibility Cloak was alike how it used to be to him in his early days at Hogwarts. Just a magical item of clothing that had been passed down from his father. A cloak to hide him from authority, not a gift fashioned by Death itself for the three brothers who deceived him. However this time, Harry was using his cloak to hide from his last nemesis. Lord Voldemort's most prolific assassin, the Death Eaters' secret weapon, an insane, blood crazed wizard…

"So…what's the plan?" Hermione asked, stashing away her wand as Harry ruffled the hems of the Invisibility Cloak, his eyes not even staring at the fluid-like material but the ground beneath his feet.

"Me and you distract McKinnon, Harry, under the Cloak of course, can creep up behind him and…you know…" Ron suggested.

"Kill him, you mean?" Harry didn't lift up his head as he spoke to Ron, "I'm not having you dance around McKinnon, risking your lives, just so I can _try _and get to him."

"Mate, it's worth it. He's got to be stopped."

"But…"

"Harry, it's the only plan we've got!" Hermione snapped at him, "Ron's right. We've seen what McKinnon's capable of. He can do worse with the right motivation. He's the last one, Harry."

"So…" Harry exhaled.

"So, we distract him, you sneak up behind him and kill him. Yeah?" Ron suggested.

"How do you plan to distract him?"

"We'll have to duel him, it'll be the only way," Hermione's words saw Harry shake his, adamant.

"He'll destroy you if you let your guard down even once."

Ron and Hermione nodded serenely, "It's a risk we've got to take. You've got to stop him, Harry."

"I've got no choice then have I? I've got to kill him." Harry moaned.

"We're doing this…now?" Ron asked them.

"Yeah…" Harry and Hermione chorused.

Harry then unravelled the Invisibility Cloak before throwing it upon himself ensuring he was completely shrouded making him impermeable to the vision of anybody around him. Under his cloak he placed his wand into his shaking hand as Ron and Hermione copied him.

"Follow our lead Harry," Hermione whispered. Harry refrained from nodding realising Ron and Hermione could not see him. The pair then headed off towards the epicentre of the war with Harry hidden in tow. After a couple of minutes of slow marching the trio found themselves beginning to avoid curses, debris, flying bodies as explosions shattered more and more of Hogwarts Castle. Near to the rear end of the castle, at the beginning of the courtyard, seemed to be an abundance of duellers.

"Harry, d'you think he might be over there?" Hermione wondered gesticulating towards the scene where many wizards seemed to collapse, stunned or dead.

"Probably. He might of gone nuts."

"More than he already is?" Ron made Harry issue a strange chuckle that felt very alien to his system. As the trio began to close in on the battle Harry saw flashes of horrid nightmares mixed with memories of things he would usually view as happy. His brain hurt as paranoia and adrenaline pumped through his veins and Harry rolled his wand between his fingers, cleverly side-stepping fireballs and a trunk-like limb that once belonged to a troll fell near to his feet. Harry realised as they got closer to the heated conflict that there was a main figure dominating the proceedings. Then, Harry spotted him. Jeremiah McKinnon was in the centre of the fighting, he twirled his wand as he span around and around and danced to avoid the array of falling incantations as he killed numerous innocent students and Aurors. Harry, Ron and Hermione were then on the edge of the fighting, still unseen by anybody involved. They decided to take refuge behind a mass of wreckage as the number of fighters involved with the main battle decreased, the thicket of wizards and witches thinned as many ran away or ended up dead or unconscious. Eventually McKinnon's fiery wrath saw the remaining scatter to fight one on one duels nearby leaving him alone and emitting a high pitched cackle of triumph and insanity.

"Hee-hee!" he exclaimed firing some multi-coloured sparks into the air above his head and generating a little tap-dance, his face with the expression of manic glint. Beneath his bloodied face, McKinnon's dark eyes glinted with his evil as he laughed further.

"This is the perfect opportunity, Harry," Hermione said, "Go around the back of him while we fight him. Take the first shot you get."

Harry swiftly spectated McKinnon who stood dancing and laughing and chanting in a sing-song voice as other wizards and witches fought close to him but not daring to ensue a duel with him. Harry realised he wasn't the only person that was petrified of McKinnon. The innocent fighters nearby were scared of even going near the delusional wizard but Harry would have to near him in order to end his life. Harry was going to have to witness Ron and Hermione risk their lives battling an experienced murderer while he snuck up behind him and tried to use a Killing Curse on the trained Death Eater. Harry had already killed one person that day as it was a necessity and had felt incredibly guilty about it but McKinnon was slightly different. McKinnon was deliberately evil unlike Onya who had felt forced into committing such atrocities and also, Harry, though understanding of what Hermione had said, realised how he'd destroyed Draco because of his and Onya's unrequited love for one another. No matter how abnormal their relationship had been Harry had felt some compassion towards Draco as Onya slipped away from him as she died in his arms. Draco had received mixed feelings from his Death Eater family, be slightly responsible for the death of one of his friends and helped destroy his 'partner'. Now, Harry felt much more confident than he had before because of who he was killing. Though he felt unsettled by the notion that he would have to kill another person, he knew it was the correct thing to do because of McKinnon's legacy. The hundreds of people he had killed, how he had dismantled the worlds' governments, devised the third world wizarding war and now tried to end it single-handedly after deceiving Harry and the others in an agreement that saw Harry have to kill Onya, saving McKinnon a volatile enemy. With these thoughts in mind, Harry did not realise he had managed to be around the back of McKinnon. He was only several metres away from the wizard who was slumped against a broken wall as Ron and Hermione remained unseen behind the wreckage.

"Mr Weasley! Miss Granger!"

Ron and Hermione finally exited the rubble and presented themselves before Jeremiah McKinnon. At their sides they held their wands and moved forwards, synchronised, as McKinnon pushed himself off of the wall and took several steps ahead of him.

"What a pleasure it is to meet you both again, however, I do not think we've held a meeting without the presence of our dear friend, Mr Potter. Where is our beloved hero now?" McKinnon sang, as he stopped walking as did Ron and Hermione so that they were separated by only a few feet. Harry, now being a particular distance behind McKinnon inched forwards quietly.

"We don't know." Ron lied.

"Rubbish," McKinnon dismissed Ron's response, "WHERE IS HE?!" McKinnon then screamed, his voice reverberated around the courtyard.

"We lost him earlier…when Onya…" Hermione corroborated Ron's story.

"Ran away crying like a little boy has he? The poor orphan whose been dragged through all of this and ended up killing a girl two years his junior huh?!" McKinnon giggled, "I wouldn't be surprised if he's hiding in a pile of bricks waiting for everything to blow over…the coward!"

"He is not a coward!" Hermione retorted.

"Ha!" McKinnon chuckled, "Where is then? Letting you fight his battles, just like all the others who have died for him. Or is the Boy Who Lived planning something special?"

"We haven't got a clue. He might of even ran away so…" Ron lied further.

"So what is this? A sacrifice? You've lost the Chosen One so the only thing you can do is offer yourselves up for voluntary death?"

"We're not surrendering to you," Hermione spat, "We've come to stop you."  
Harry shifted uncomfortably underneath the Invisibility Cloak expecting another fit of laughter from McKinnon but instead he stared at both Ron and Hermione serenely.

"You…fancy your chances? Your bravery obviously knows no bounds does it? Oh, sorry, did I say bravery…I meant the stupidity you've inherited from your precious Saint Potter!"

"STUPEFY!" Ron's stunning spell was quickly diminished in an instant with a wave of McKinnon's wand.

"You try to stun me?!" McKinnon bellowed, his eyes lit with fury, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" the green flash of light flew over Ron and Hermione as they dived onto the ground.

"Casus!" Hermione wriggled her wand hand free to shoot the trip-jinx at McKinnon causing him to topple over onto the ground. Harry, who had been forcibly stood stock still nearby watching the fight ensue felt the temptation to burst out of the Cloak and finish McKinnon but knew he had to wait for the correct time.

McKinnon pushed himself back onto his feet as did Ron and Hermione. McKinnon, who had split his lip on the concrete, spat out a mouthful of congealing blood.

"Clever girl…" McKinnon wiped his chin, "You'd make a lovely Death Eater, shame about the filth in your blood."

"Bombarda!" Ron fired the hex at McKinnon in anguish at his remark but the latter deflected it into a nearby castle wall causing it to collapse.

"Somebody needs to learn their manners don't they? Crucio!" the torture curse hit Ron directly in the chest and almost immediately he was on the ground writhing in dire agony, producing blood-curdling screams. At the sight of his best friend's pain, Harry resisted lifting off the cloak but marched towards McKinnon's back and lifted up his wand to be in line with the back of the wizard's skull. As McKinnon jeered at Ron's torture and Hermione struggled to lift the curse, Harry felt the two words of the incantation forcing themselves onto his lips. He had already produced the killing curse once and do it again to feel what he had suffered earlier would destroy. However, he knew it was necessary and had to be done immediately to inhibit Ron's suffering and to put an end to Jeremiah McKinnon.

"You think I didn't know you were there!" McKinnon suddenly wheeled round towards Harry and dragged the Invisibility Cloak off of him before swinging a fist to his face causing him to crash into the ground. As Harry hastily nursed his bleeding, bruised cheek, McKinnon tossed the Cloak aside and because of his change in concentration, the Cruciatus Curse on Ron lifted.

"I know you're ridiculously childish when it comes to facing up to your own problems, Harry…" McKinnon began to walk in a circle around Harry on the floor, "But did you honestly think I'd believe you'd left your best friends to die at my hand? Even I know how much you would do to protect them. I knew you were hiding somewhere as soon as they walked up to me. With Onya dead I pretty much assumed you'd have your Hallows back meaning you could hide under your Cloak one more time."

"We made an agreement. You said you'd surrender your army and help us end this damn war!" Harry stood up for McKinnon to step back so the two could face one another.

"Harry you've known me long enough to realise I never tell the truth."

"Maybe I thought you'd seen sense."  
"Sense?!" McKinnon hollered, "I have done. I had enough sense to set up this war didn't I-?!"

"You've got to be the only person who agrees with this entire thing."

McKinnon shook his head, "And for me that's enough. My decisions are final. If you haven't noticed I've won this war and gained two worlds out of it."

"Who says you've won? What worlds? Voldemort's army are still fighting without him and Onya, your own army too and don't forget ours. And there's going to be nothing left of both worlds when this has finished. Did you not see what happened in London? Or what this has done to this school and Hogsmeade?"  
"Both Voldemort's army and your own pathetic forces have lost an incredible amount of magical blood. Mine however, remain strong in the face of death. And whatever's left of these worlds then we will rebuild and when we rebuild the Muggle and the Wizarding worlds will be my empire."

Harry tensed, his fingers throbbed as they held his wand close to his body, "Where have you been during this? Both Voldemort and Onya thought they could reign over the entire population but ended up dead. Voldemort's experienced in having control of everything and Onya had more power than anything to grace this earth. Onya killed Voldemort, I killed Onya and now-!"

"What?! You're going to kill me?! You seriously consider your chances, Harry?"

"With everything that's going on…of course I do."

"Let's not rush the moment then…" McKinnon grinned, "Though the probability of your death is higher than mine I do think we can make this a little more entertaining for both ourselves and everybody else."

"What're you rambling about?"

"A duel, Mr Potter," simpered McKinnon twirling his wand, sparks flew out of the tip of it, "If we're going to fight to the death we might as well do it properly…in style so to speak."

"You're insane, you know that?"

"Oh…I thought you ready for this, Harry?! I thought you wanted to fight, to kill me, well here's your opportunity! You might at least give me a chance, huh?!"

Harry looked over McKinnon's shoulder to see Ron and Hermione adamantly shake their heads, determined for Harry to get the deed over with, to kill McKinnon quickly and end the war as soon as possible.

"From what I remember we have to hold our wands by our side until we meet each other in the middle…yes?" Harry held his wand against his right leg and raised his eyebrows at McKinnon.

"Your memory serves you well. However, being courteous to one another isn't going to save your life, is it?" McKinnon also dropped his wand by his side.

"Let's begin?" Harry and McKinnon then strode towards each other, taking each step slowly, before they came nose to nose. When together they copied one another by lifting their wands to the sides of their faces before bringing them back down, "Good luck, Jeremiah." Harry winked.

The two then turned on their heels and returned to their original positions facing their opponent. They then arched their wands over their heads and stood stock still eyeing up the enemy. McKinnon licked his lips and sniffed the air as his eyes lit up manically. Harry on the other hand gritted his chattering teeth and tried to maintain a steady grip on his shaking wand. He looked into McKinnon's gleaming eyes as multiple thoughts whirred in his tired brain of events gone by. It had only been an hour at least since he had let go of the bow and released the arrow into Onya's heart letting the blood that spilled from her wound take away her life. He'd already ended one life that morning and now it was time for him to do the same again to McKinnon.

"On the count of three. Three…" McKinnon sang.

Suddenly a thought popped into Harry's head. What would his parents think of what he had done. What he'd done to Onya, to Draco…what he was going to do to McKinnon. How would James and Lily Potter view it? Or Dumbledore, or Sirius or Remus? Would they see such an act as necessary? Would they look down upon him?

"Two."

The black in Onya's eyes dissipated and her lids stopped flickering as Draco sobbed at her side before removing the single arrow. Harry had been unaware of their relationship and what it had contained. Harry also realised he had accidentally returned Draco's father; Lucius, back to his previous state: deceased. And as a result of his Death Eater activities his soul would be non-existent. Would the deaths of Onya and Lucius see Draco claim vengeance and try to kill Harry?

"One."  
Harry had looked into the atrocities McKinnon had committed in his time as Voldemort's personal assassin. The incredible amount of people both innocent and experienced in the magical arts had all fallen at his hand. With a blending of comfortable use of the Unforgiveable Curses, numerous Dark spells and experience in torture and murder, Harry didn't fancy his luck. McKinnon slaughtered for fun. Now the deranged wizard would do anything to kill Harry. He didn't stand a chance…

"Let's duel!"

Harry had been temporarily befuddled with his inner thoughts when McKinnon successfully fired a Stinging Jinx at Harry's stomach causing him to crash onto his knees and scream in agony as the jinx seared his skin.

"Oh, Harry, pay attention! Crucio!" the blow to his stomach woke Harry up. Now aware of the situation he found himself in, he dived onto the ground to avoid the torture curse that split open part of the concrete floor.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry swung the disarming charm at McKinnon for the Death Eater to deflect it easily as Harry got to his feet.

"Pathetically infantile!" McKinnon spat, "Incendio!" A jet of red flames brushed past Harry's mop of hair, singeing it, before it set alight to a patch of grass.

"Aliquam!" Harry's spell saw a large pumpkin appear attached to McKinnon's head causing him to walk around aimlessly until he used his wand to break it open in anguish.

"Ha!" Harry laughed as McKinnon flung aside chunks of pumpkin and sent a hurling hex into one of the castle's pillars. With its disintegration saw Harry somersault to avoid the collapse of part of the castle walls.

McKinnon gave an angered grunt before diving onto Harry to try and restrain him but Harry turned on his heel as McKinnon seized him and the pair Disapparated. When they reappeared they found themselves near the burnt remains of Hagrid's hut.

"Reducto!" McKinnon's hex sent Harry flying onto his back in a puddle of mud. As Harry clambered out of the puddle he severed the legs of a standing canopy near the hut so that it's cloth could shroud McKinnon, "Diffindo!"

"Deprimo!" McKinnon's wand spiralled the cloth away with a gust of furious wind before shooting another spell at the cloth, "Duro!"

The cloth then stopped being a fluid-like material and instead turned solid and fell on top of Harry, flattening him back in the mud, "Incarcerous!" From the tip of Harry's wand protruded several ropes that bound themselves around the hardened cloth allowing Harry to muster enough power behind the object and fling it in McKinnon's direction.

"Waddiwassi maxima!" The cloth was then propelled by a pulse of energy from the tip of McKinnon's wand that saw it shatter yards away from the pair.

Harry unstuck his shoes from the mud and forced himself to sprint out of the puddle and towards McKinnon before exclaiming, "Accio spade!" One of Hagrid's spades that lay near the remains of his hut flew straight into Harry's hand where he swung at McKinnon. McKinnon avoided a blow from the gardening tool by jumping over it and screamed, "Defodio!" at the head of the spade causing it to break off before he levitated the plate of steel in the air at aimed it at Harry's head, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Protego!" a shield erupted from the end of Harry's wand so that the spade head was deflected easily, "Descendo!" Harry's hex saw McKinnon then begin to sink into the ground where he stood squirming, trying to exit the ground that consumed him up to his thighs, "Expulso!" The ground area McKinnon's waist detonated allowing him to climb out of the grassy area and charge at Harry. When McKinnon grabbed Harry they ended up Disapparating again, this time they were at the main gates.

One of the bars from the school gate lay on the ground near Harry's feet and with a swish of his wand ("Erecto!") it rose with such a speed and force that caught McKinnon's stomach and winded him. When on his knees and groaning in pain, McKinnon attempted to seize hold of the metal bar but failed, "Gelata digitis!" Harry's Jelly-Fingers jinx made McKinnon's hand suddenly flop, lifeless, unable to grasp the bar with his free hand. However, his wand hand was still active, "Flagrate!" The old, sealed wound on Harry's stomach reopened as his skin was subject to various blows that felt like hot flames. The duelling had unsettled his wound already but now it began to bleed again causing Harry to omit a moan of agony as his shirt started to seep with blood but he tried to remain upright.

"Genu transuerso!" McKinnon's curse flipped around Harry's knees to the back of his legs so that he collapsed face first into the concrete so that his nose began to drip with blood. McKinnon then appeared to of regained the ability to use his fingers as he scurried over to Harry and launched a foot into his face breaking the already fragile nose. Harry then lay on his side while his now broken nose and his wounded stomach bled into the floor.

"Harry, Harry, Harry...you're letting the side down. I didn't think you would fall for such a thing!"

"I didn't! Finite Incantatem!" Harry had only been on the ground for seconds where he was able to direct the negating charm at his legs and cause his knees to flip back to their original position. Harry then went to kick McKinnon in his own legs when the wizard took a hold of his right foot and the pair Disapparated again into the Potions room. Harry hadn't been in the dungeons ever since his days at Hogwarts and now found himself diving over a desk and hiding behind it as McKinnon got to his feet and blasted the desk beside Harry into shards of wood, "Confringo!"

"Levicorpus!" Harry's aim saw McKinnon hang in the air by his ankle but this rise in height allowed him to make Harry's legs begin to dance uncontrollably, "Tarantallegra!" As Harry's legs writhed McKinnon applied another curse, "Rictumsempra!" Harry's jerking body was then forced to produce high-pitched laughter as his body was prodded invisibly by the charm McKinnon had placed on him. The tickling charm had been manipulated by the dark wizard to hurt Harry in a way that reminded the teen of the Cruciatus Curse and his laughter was forced and more like shrieking.

"Liberacorpus!" McKinnon fell to the floor as he dismissed Harry's charm on his ankle before lifting the curses on his opponent so that Harry crumpled into a heap, sweating and shaking.

"Glisseo!" Harry had just managed to recover enough to cause McKinnon to slip onto his back but as he fell he hollered, "Incendio maxima!" Then, a large gust of continous flame burst out of his wand in Harry's direction who quickly responded with, "Aguamenti maxima!" Which saw a jet of icy, water spurt out and counteract the fire against him. For the next minute or so the two duellers found themselves forcing their own elements against the other. As the streams of water and fire had joined they had spread in the centre to form a shield of flames and water they destroyed several desks and stools and shattered jars of potions on the walls. Eventually, Harry was able to shift his stream of water so that McKinnon's inferno struck the side of the potions' room's wall. The flames ignited some flammable potions so that an entire shelf was then on fire. Harry's jet of water died out as McKinnon's flames as they both ogled the fire now spreading across the perimeter of the classroom. The blaze was beginning to surround them and was closing in on the door to the dungeons when McKinnon broke through it in time. As Harry reached the then closed door a wooden beam covered in fire collapsed in front of the door, blocking his exit. And with no other possible way out and being so far down in the school with no windows, Harry thought he didn't stand a chance of escaping and following and stopping McKinnon.

"OPPUGNO!" One of the dead troll's clubs abruptly burst open the potions' room door, splintering the wood into shards that scattered the ground. Harry could just see through the fire that raged across the floor, up the walls and in the mouth of the exit someone he definitely did not expect to save him that morning. Gregory Goyle.

"Can you get out?!" Goyle's voice boomed.

"NO!" Harry replied, frantic as the inferno got closer to his still body.

"Flama frigidus!" Goyle's wand spat a blue light onto the flames but nothing happened. Harry recognised the charm immediately. It was the flame freeze charm that stopped wizards and witches being able to feel the burning sensation of the flames but only a tickling sensation. Harry had remembered this from reading _A History of Magic_ in the summer before his third year at Hogwarts under the covers in his bed at the Dursleys that felt lifetimes ago...The charm wasn't to be used to stop fires like the one McKinnon had accidentally caused. As Harry tried to think of a solution to his problem he also wondered why Goyle of all people was trying to save him after attempting to kill him not so long ago. Goyle from the look of him had been in hiding for some time ever since Draco had taken advantage of him and McKinnon. It looked like the usually round, stocky Goyle had lost a lot of weight and now owned a very scraggly stubble. His eyes were wide and determined to help Harry out.

"Wait!" Harry shouted at Goyle who lifted his wand for another attempt at killing the fire, "I can get out!" Harry had been thinking about his third year at Hogwarts ever since he remembered the fact about the flame freezing charm. With this year in mind, he remembered a particular Quidditch match that saw the Gryffindor team exposed to torrential weather. At the time Hermione had used a spell to help the players repel the rain and Harry now remembered it, allowing him to be able to escape the fires without being singed, "Impervius!" Harry's body was then coated invisibly be a forcefield which let him run through the flames in the doorway and into the dungeons beside Goyle. As Harry exited the fire he turned to the inferno and realised it would seen exit the classroom and take over the rest of the school. He and Goyle would have to prevent it doing so.

"We've gotta stop this escaping and burning the rest of the school down!" Goyle cried.

"Evanesco!" Harry's dissapearing charm launched itself into the heart of the blaze but only managed to cease a patch of concrete that was alight before the fire then roared and grew vertically, "The fire's too big to disappear!"

"Imperturbable ostia!" Goyle's spell to try and block the fire with a shield which failed miserably, causing the flames to tunult towards the doorway they stood in.

"Meteolojinx Recanto!" Harry's jinx did not work as he remembered it only prevented the continuation of weather effects created by magic, "Wait, I've got an idea!" Harry then swang at his wand into the fire's direction, "CAVE INIMICUM!"

The walls of the potions room and those guarding the open doorway suddenly crumbled and began to collapse onto the fire. As the potions room collapsed in on itself hundreds of bricks fell on top of the fire. After Harry and Goyle backed away from the room's entrance, eventually the entierity of the portion of the dungeons had caved in. The spell's power was able to enchant the broken walls so that they immediately ceased the raging inferno. All that was then left of the potions' room was a gigantic heap of bricks that were layered over the charred debris of the classroom. Harry had helped destroy another part of his life. The classroom where he had been tormented by Severus Snape for several years, without realisation that the man was protecting him...

"Where's McKinnon?" Harry wiped his brow which sweated from the heat of the fire.

"What?" Goyle spluttered.

"Where did he go?! Which way?!"

"I just saved your life, don't I get a thanks?!"

"Yeah, thanks, whatever, where's McKinnon?! I've got to find him!"  
"Why? Didn't he just try to kill you? You insane or what?!"

"He needs stopping Goyle, can't you see what he did to you! People don't deserve the time of day! People like him saw your father end up dead!"

Goyle stood aback, evidently unaware of his father's death months previously, his mouth agape in shock, a tear in his eye, "I didn't know he was..."

"I'm sorry but I need to find McKinnon."

"And what're you gonna do when you find him?" Goyle muttered broodingly, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm going to kill him...just like he deserves, Goyle."

Goyle gestured upwards, "I think he might be on the Grand Staircase..." he murmured.

"Thanks!" Harry then patted Goyle sympathetically on the arm before racing towards the exit of the dungeons. There, he jumped up the stone steps until he reached the corridor and began to accelerate towards the Grand Staircase... "CATERWAUL!"

"ARGH!" Harry dropped to the ground holding his head in his hands, fumbling to cover his ears as a high-pitched shrieking echoed through the corridor.

"HARRY, IT WAS RATHER OBVIOUS THAT A BOY LIKE YOURSELF WOULD SURVIVE SUCH A HARMLESS FIRE!" The shrieking ceased as McKinnon bellowed at Harry at the top of his voice, "Pity, I was hoping I wouldn't have to kill you myself!" Harry stared at McKinnon as he spoke from above him, "DON'T STARE AT ME BOY! CONIUNCTIVITIS!" Harry's eyes then seared with immense, unbearable pain causing him to scratch at the sockets in agony.

However, through his stinging eyes, Harry was still able to aim one of Snape's home-made jinxes from his potion's book at McKinnon's face as he began to recite the killing curse.

"AVADA KED-!"  
"LANGLOCK!" McKinnon's tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, the killing curse was then uncompleted and because of his loss in concentration the stinging hex in Harry's eyes stopped and he was able to get back to his feet but as he did McKinnon lifted the curse on his tongue in irritation before attempting to produce the Killing Curse again but Harry was too quick again, "Obscuro!" A blindfold wrapped itself around McKinnon's head, covering his eyes so that his wand ejected a blast of light that struck the wall of the corridor lamely. As the wizard tore off the strip of fabric he screeched, "IMPEDIMENTA!" causing Harry to trip onto his back but as he did fall he clouded McKinnon's view with the pummelling of a bouquet of flowers into his face, "Orchideus!"

By the time the flowers dropped to the floor Harry was back on his feet as McKinnon's next curse was deflected by the teenager, "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

"Piertotum Locomotor!" Harry then animated a nearby, only slight damaged suit of armour which jumped off its plinth and marched towards McKinnon, unsheathing a long, heavy sword and pointing it in the wizard's direction. Harry was prepping himself to try and deliver a clean blow to McKinnon as the suit of armour swung at the Death Eater with its sword but McKinnon was a step ahead. Two halves of another suit's sword lay nearby and with a simple swish of his wand ("Reparo! Accio sword!") a repaired sword flew into his hand allowing him to decapitate the suit so that it clattered to the floor without any more consciousness.

"You can't carry on like this Harry. You must surrender your life to me eventually! Come on Harry, the others have stood in line for you and been slaughtered one by one deservedly, now it's time Harry! Give up! Give up just like your mother and fath-!"

The pair Disapparated again. Harry had dashed towards McKinnon, seizing him roughly by the scruff of his neck and turning hastily enough so they both appeared at the top of the Astronomy Tower. Harry knew it wasn't the ideal place for his mind to be in right now but the tallest tower in the school was where he felt he could finish his duel with McKinnon. If the great Albus Dumbledore could be trapped and killed here, a powerful Onya be brought here and go onto die then Harry had confidence it was the right place to put an end to another powerful wizarding figure. As the pair got to their feet on impact with the ground Harry deftly disarmed with McKinnon with a precise strike to the wizard's wrist, "Expelliarmus!" Instantaneously, McKinnon's wand spiralled out of his fingertips and was launched off the side of the open tower. In the distance Harry could hear the wand clatter noisily onto the crumpled concrete remains of the courtyard. Harry then thought he had his chance to finally kill McKinnon when the former scissor-kicked Harry's own hand out of his hand. As his wand was the only weapon Harry saw fit to be the one to destroy McKinnon he dived to reclaim it as it rolled off the edge of the tower and met the same fate as McKinnon's. His wand had been lost to the Astronomy Tower for the second time that night and with that in mind he became even more frustrated then he already was. With nothing else for either of them to kill each other they resorted to violence via fists. Harry slid both his legs into McKinnon's so that he slipped onto the floor. Harry then jumped on top of McKinnon's torso momentarily before he hit Harry in the face with a single punch. The tables then turned, McKinnon was then above Harry and begun to repeatedly smash his clenched fist into his face so many times that it begun bleed profusely, causing multiple bruising. Harry's eyes became unfocused as McKinnon beat him senseless…blood spattered all over his burnt clothing and the cracked surface of the concrete that his head bounced upon as hands reshaped his face. The lenses in his glasses splintered as he spots of light emerge in his half-open eyes, semi-conscious as McKinnon yelled triumphantly;

"ACCIO WAND!"

Harry had never been able to successfully retrieve his wand before by only using his own body…come to think of it he'd never mastered any kind of magic without his wand which made McKinnon more threatening than he already was. Harry knew as McKinnon's wand returned to his hand and he inhibited his beating of Harry that that was the end. He was defenceless, without a wand…he lay, half-dead, bleeding groaning in agony under McKinnon's weight as the assassin inserted the tip of his wand onto the bridge of Harry's nose.

"Harry Potter…it's been my pleasure to fight you but I think this is…the end?"  
Harry's vision was impaired by bright lights and blurred colours and shapes as his broken glasses hung loosely on his face. There was nothing he could do as he felt cold blood trickle down his nose and onto his cheek and his body screamed out in ache, he admitted defeat silently in his head. Maybe, he would finally succumb to Death? Harry then thought to himself that if he was to die then he might as well leave the world with some dignity and so memorised the direct quote from the Bard's tale of the Third Brother, his ancestor Ignotus, about he had left and was determined to do so the same.

_'And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.'_

"I pity you…" Harry glanced blankly at McKinnon who responded with raised eyebrows and a shake of the head, "Kill me."

"Avada…Ked-!"

"REDUCTO!"

McKinnon, as he was catapulted by an immense blast of magical energy towards the edge of the Astronomy Tower, grabbed hold of Harry's singed jacket. As McKinnon was flung, Harry was dragged against the ground. Then, McKinnon's body slipped off the side of the tower and as he did he grappled at Harry's legs at managed to wrap his arms around them as Harry also slipped. Then, Harry found himself using all his upper-body strength to hold himself up on the edge of the Astronomy Tower as McKinnon clung desperately to his legs. The pair of them then attempted to scale the side of the tower back to safety. Harry then saw the hazy image of the caster of the reductor curse. It was Draco Malfoy!

"DRACO!" Harry screamed for the blond haired teenager to rush to the edge of the tower and kneel quickly before extending his hands.

"TAKE MY HANDS!" he bellowed as Harry grabbed his hands tightly and planned to pull himself up and onto the tower when his sweaty, greasy hands began to slip out of Draco's cold ones.

"I'M SLIPPING!" Harry exclaimed.

"HOLD ON!" Draco tried to help Harry by applying all his strength into arms, groaning as he dragged both McKinnon and Harry slightly up the wall of the Astronomy Tower.

"I CAN'T!"

"TRUST ME!"

"If you try to save him, I'll take you both down with me!" McKinnon barked at Draco from underneath Harry as he scrabbled at his jeans.

"NO!" Draco released Harry's hands allowing to hold onto the tower's edge alone, slightly lowered by Draco letting him go he shot his former school enemy a horrified look as Draco picked up his wand which lay near to him. He then returned to the edge of the tower and pointed it in Harry and McKinnon's direction.

"DRACO, WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!" Harry roared.

"Try anything, Malfoy, and I'll kill all of us!" McKinnon adjusted his right hand on Harry's leg so that both Harry (looking beneath him) and Draco could see he still had his wand stuck in his hand.

"Draco?!" Harry cried out as Draco extended his wand hand and rolled the weapon between his fingers.

"DUCK, HARRY!" Then, as Harry dropped his head, Draco clamoured, "SECTUMSEMPRA!"

A flash of light whizzed over Harry's head and he turned just in time to see the curse strike McKinnon in the heart causing his form to lose grip of Harry's legs and free-fall towards the courtyard. Harry looked away before McKinnon had hit the Earth as Draco hastily returned to successfully pulling Harry back onto the tower.

When Harry clambered back onto the tower he panted, "Sectumsempra? You remembered…?"

"How could I forget?" Draco stashed away his wand and leant forward, settling the palms of his hands on his knees and exhaled deeply.

"Is he…?" Harry speculated as Draco peered over the side of the Astronomy Tower and returned to Harry, shaking his head.

"He still had his wand…he's survived the fall…" Draco's face was emotionless as he took Harry's arm and they Disapparated beside McKinnon. The Death Eater lay on the concrete bleeding from several gash-like wounds on his torso, seemingly semi-conscious and his limbs limp by his side. The Sectumsempra Curse was slowly killing him and it appeared he had only just managed to survive the worst of his fall from the top of the tower. Draco stayed where he had Apparated whereas Harry knelt by McKinnon's side as he bled.

"I only just cushioned my fall…" McKinnon whimpered through a mouthful of crimson liquid, "These will kill me though…" he gestured weakly to the deep wounds on his chest, "Very good job, Draco…" he simpered with a grimace on his bloodied visage.

"You brought it on yourself," Draco spat near to McKinnon's unmoving foot with a look of pure disgust.

"It wasn't always like this…" McKinnon spluttered, spraying blood everywhere, "There was a time when things weren't the way they are for me."

"What's this? A dead man's attempt to repent?" Draco remarked.

"Repentance would be wasted on me, as you know," McKinnon's guffaw was muffled with his own blood, "I think you deserve to know the truth."

McKinnon's wand still lay in his hand and he just mustered enough energy to lift the wand towards his head.

"Harry…!" Draco complained.

"Get a phial," McKinnon ordered Draco to whom Harry inclined his head to affirm what McKinnon had asked for. So, against his own will, Draco ambled around, digging in the wreckage of the school to find a single phial as Harry spoke quietly to McKinnon.

"Do you need a phial for what I think?" Harry muttered.

"If I'm going to die I at least want my enemy to know why I was…well…his enemy." McKinnon informed Harry with a wry smile as Draco scurried back towards them holding a single, crystal phial that he had found hidden under some bricks. As he uncorked he said, "Harry, what's this for?" he held up the phial.

"I'll explain later. Just give it to him." Draco bent down to McKinnon and handed over the phial. McKinnon then tapped the side of his head and withdrew a thick strand of silvery fibres from it. After removing the memories from his mind, McKinnon slotted them into the phial which Harry took off of him and reinserted the cork which Draco handed to him.

"After you see what happened to me, then maybe you'll understand…" McKinnon told Harry and Draco.

"Maybe we'll understand but it doesn't mean you'll be forgiven." Draco snapped.

"To be brutally honest…I wasn't wishing for your forgiveness…If I wanted such a thing I would of changed the man I was a long time ago."

"You have regrets about what you did then?"

"I may have had regrets…and guilt…but neither were strong enough to counteract my morals. Otherwise, I wouldn't be dying here."

"Harry…what was that…what he took from his head?" Draco queried.

"Memories," Harry begun to explain, "They're his memories. I think he wants us to see why he became a Death Eater."  
"At least one of you understands," McKinnon gurgled another mouthful of blood as his robes turned from blue to red.

"And how do you expect we see these 'memories'?" Harry then briefly explained about the Pensieve and how he had used it previously.

"Right…" Draco sighed.

"I don't think I have long," McKinnon told them gingerly caressing one of the many, deep incisions on his body, "Get out of here before I decide to kill you."

"I'd rather watch you die, thanks," Draco had a face like thunder. His evident hatred for McKinnon was seeping into his expression as quickly as the blood from McKinnon's body stained his robes. Harry on the other hand felt a slight pang of sympathy towards McKinnon which immediately repulsed him.

"I'm surprised you haven't killed me already…" McKinnon sniggered. Harry hated the man. He always had and always would but he couldn't help but feel for him as he died before him. From what he had said there was something in his past that had made him into the man he became. Something had happened to turn him into the biggest killer Harry had ever known…

"Harry…" McKinnon murmured in a hoarse voice drawing the attention of Harry who had been mesmerised with his own thoughts. Harry then realised as he turned to face McKinnon that the dark wizard's life was coming to a final end. The man had disguised himself to try and kill him in a duel at St Mungo's which had left part of the hospital destroyed. Then, he'd endangered the lives of the Weasleys in Australia when he was a prisoner at their Ministry but he had managed to escape. Harry's succeeding encounters then saw him battle to preserve his own life as McKinnon deconstructed the worlds' governments and took part in the planning of a global war on the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. Harry had seriously begun to consider McKinnon was not as evil as he had perceived him as he offered to help stop Onya but the betrayal in trust that followed along with the duel saw Harry lose all faith in believing the wizard had a single strand of decency in his body. On the contrary, as McKinnon died slowly on the remains of Hogwarts' School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry could not help but think there was a reason why McKinnon had done the things he had performed. A glint of innocence could be noticed in McKinnon as he struggled to communicate what had happened to him to cause his insanity. The deranged prisoner, Voldemort's personal, best assassin, the man determined to kill Harry so badly was beginning to humanise as his life ran away from him. Harry understood something had gone terribly wrong a long time ago and that would all make sense later as he watched McKinnon's memories but at that moment all he could was stare as McKinnon uttered; "See you in hell." His pupils then stopped rotating and his chest stopped rising as the last trickle of blood landed on the concrete in silence. Still and unmoving, Harry could not help but be transfixed by the sight of the corpse's eyes staring blankly into his.

Jeremiah McKinnon was dead. The Third Wizarding World War had ended.

"DEATH EATERS! DROP YOUR WANDS AND SURRENDER FOR ARREST TO THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC!" Harry thought he was hearing voices in his head, but he was wrong. In actual fact, it was Kingsley Shacklebolt's deep voice that boomed around the courtyard and most likely throughout the corridors of Hogwarts and the streets of Hogsmeade, "LORD VOLDEMORT, YVONYYA LEWIS, JEREMIAH MCKINNON AND YOUR SUPERIORS HAVE BEEN KILLED! RETREAT AND GIVE UP ANY ATTEMPT TO ATTACK MINISTRY OR PUBLIC FORCES! IF YOU DO NOT CO-OPERATE YOU WILL BE EXECUTED OR IMPRISONED WITHOUT TRIAL!"

Harry and Draco looked up and saw Kingsley standing at the edge of the Astronomy Tower lowering his wand from his throat. He had previously noticed Harry and Draco with McKinnon's body and now looked at them with a small smile before Apparating beside them.

"The war is over," Kingsley stated, a note of poignancy in his voice, "We didn't find a sign of Voldemort's main supporters but we assumed that they're dead?"

Draco shot Harry a look of confusion, "Onya's death sent them back to how they were."

Harry then felt the heat of Draco's glare on his neck. His father Lucius was dead again and Draco had been unaware the entire time they had been together with McKinnon and Onya, "My father's dead?" Draco gasped.

"Onya brought him back. When I killed her, everybody she brought back died too." Harry explained, not daring to look at Draco in the eye in order not to experience the guilt he had felt earlier that morning.

"I don't blame you, Harry," Draco told him causing Harry to whip his head around to Lucius' son, "He had already died. I grieved…then he came back. It never felt real though…him being alive. I didn't get to spend any time with him and the whole thing was false and a product of evil. To be honest, I'm glad he died again because the half-life he was living made him into a monster."

Harry then remembered how Onya's conversion into the Disciple had drained the life of Voldemort's main supporters turning those like Lucius and Bellatrix to become half-dead and animalistic. Maybe it had been the best for Lucius to return to death rather than being subjected to a painfully, short life as something inhuman. Harry then did not feel as guilty as he had done and decided to look at Draco with an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry…I didn't think…"

"As I've said, it isn't your fault. Onya needed stopping and if my father had to die a second time as a consequence then I can forgive you. Forgive you for saving him and everybody else. Don't apologise, you don't need to." Though Draco was visibly distressed with the news of his father's death, Harry realised how he had committed sympathetic genocide. His single murder of Onya had killed Lucius and the others but the deed was evidently a good one and so Harry decided to try and not feel as guilty as he did for his crimes.

"Hermione and the Weasleys are looking for you, Harry," Kingsley snapped Harry out his thoughts about Draco to those about Ginny, Ron and Hermione.

"If you see them, tell them I'll be with them soon. I've got something to do." Harry informed Kingsley, remembering he still clutched the vial of McKinnon's memories in his palm.

"Aren't you coming to see them now?" Kingsley voiced his curio.

"Me and Draco have got something to do first." Harry explained causing Draco to ask;

"You want me to come with you?"

"I think it's best we saw it together, yeah."

"What are you doing, Harry? The war's over, what's left to do? Was it him?" Kingsley waved a finger in McKinnon's direction, "What did McKinnon want you to do?"

"It's nothing serious…everything is over, it's just something he asked us to do so we could understand what he did."

"I guess I can't stop you?"

"Definitely not, no."

"Hurry then. The others will want to see you. Also…Draco here needs to be taken in for questioning."

Draco gulped and stared at his feet as the sudden realisation washed over Harry. Draco had killed numerous innocent people, participated in Dark Magic and had been a Death Eater. His crimes were illustrious and he like any other would have to be penalised for he had done unless…

"You can't send him to Azkaban." Harry said adamantly.

Kingsley gave Harry a wild look of disbelief, "Harry, how can you stick up for this boy? He has killed so many people, worked alongside both McKinnon and Onya and committed unbelievable Dark Magic. He must be punished and I'm surprised you of all people are defending him." Kingsley argued.

"Why not?!"  
"You've been enemies with the son of one of Voldemort's greatest supporters and a Death Eater since your first day at Hogwarts! He's evil and-!"  
"No!" Harry confronted Kingsley passionately, "He just made the wrong decisions can't you see that?! He didn't agree with what Lucius Malfoy did. He didn't want to be a Death Eater but he was pressured by a family obsessed with the Dark Arts and devotion of an purely evil man! He only did the things he did with McKinnon in order to avenge his father' death and killed with Onya as a result of a long run of psychological damage and love! A teenager who can love and risk his life to stop Voldemort's insane right-hand man is not evil!" Harry tried to calm himself down through heavy breaths as he squeezed the crystal phial in his hand, "And if you take him to court, Kingsley, then you'll have me as his main supporter, his key eye-witness and not many people will disagree with me!"

"Harry you understand he's done wrong and has to be punished in some way and if not severely with imprisonment then what?"

"Anything but Azkaban! Let him rebuild this place! Hogwarts and Hogsmeade!"

Kingsley began to contemplate the idea of having Draco Malfoy assist in the rebuilding of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, "We'll discuss this later. I remember you saying you have somewhere to be, Harry?"

"Yeah…we do." Harry gestured for him and Draco to turn away from Kingsley to re-enter the school. Harry smiled to one side of his face weakly in Kingsley's direction as he lead Draco into the building.

"Why did you do that?!" Draco yelled at him.

"What?! Sticking up for you?!"

"Yes!"

Harry then shook his head at Draco as they neared the entrance to the Headmaster's Office, "You stopped McKinnon, you saved my life. It's the least I can do."

"Where are we going? Isn't this the way to Headmaster's Office?"

"Exactly, that's where the Pensieve is kept. It was Dumbledore's, didn't I say?"

Harry and Draco then met the foot of the stone steps leading up to the office. The stone gargoyles that once manned the entrance lay scattered as dust at their feet as they jogged up the spiral steps. At the top, they slipped into the Headmaster's Office, which sat untouched as ever.

"Snape?" Draco spluttered. Harry came to the conclusion that Draco was unaware of the collection of portraits that the office collected of each head master or mistress. Draco had evidently become aware of Severus Snape's own painting hanging above the chair behind the desk in the position that Harry had left it in so many months ago. Snape was sat straight in his wooden chair within the frame, a sombre expression on his face as he saw Harry and Draco walk towards him.

"Ah…Harry, I did wonder when your presence would grace this office once more. How peculiar that it should occur after a night like this." Snape simpered.

"You knew about the war then?" Harry asked.

"Obviously…I could I not be more aware. I think the sounds of explosions and cries of death might of helped me guess such a thing."

"Snape?" Draco repeated, "What're you…? Harry what's he…? I…"

"When the Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts…die…their portraits are hung in the office." Harry told Draco.

"But he…! He's SNAPE!"

"Exactly, so no-one better deserves to be up on that wall."

"WHAT?! But-! You hate, him?! He killed Dumbledore right in front of me?! Where is Dumbledore's portrait, huh?!"

"Listen to me!" Harry turned on Draco, "Snape is one of the bravest men I ever knew…he risked his life to save mine on numerous occasions, he was a double agent the whole time! Dumbledore was already dying when Snape, after their organisation of the entire thing, 'killed' him! And Dumbledore's portrait was…destroyed…in the last war."

Draco looked shocked at what he had discovered about Snape's loyalties. How the Potions Master had tricked him into believing he was on the Death Eaters' side for so long…it has all been false.

"What're you both doing here? We were told the war ended moments ago…" Snape quizzed them.

"It did. We stopped Voldemort, McKinnon and Onya but we just need to see something before we can leave this place again." Harry spotted the Pensieve lying on the desk where it had been returned since he had last used it to expose the return of Lord Voldemort the previous year.

"I cannot stop you doing whatever you plan to do but I do wish to know what happened tonight. We've been aware what's been going on since you were last here, Harry, but I must know what happened."

Harry and Draco then both quickly gave the details of the war to Snape who appeared to readily accept the information he was handed without quivering a lip, his face, emotionless, "And now you…?"

"We have to use the Pensieve." Harry held up the crystal phial full of McKinnon's memories.

"Whose are they?"

"McKinnon's."

"Are you sure that delving into that man's mind is the correct thing to do?"

Harry hastily glimpsed at Draco before mumbling, "Probably not but we've got to understand him."

"I'm not entirely sure you would like to." Snape sighed.

"Why's that?" Draco queried.

"I'm aware of some of his history…I was somehow a part of it at one point…"

"I guess you're not the only one keeping things from us then?" Harry demanded.

"Knowing your personality, Harry, the one to forgive everybody, then I think you should be able to understand why nobody informed you of McKinnon's past because if you knew you wouldn't have killed him."

Harry walked over to the Pensieve abruptly, quickly followed by Draco as he uncorked the phial and poured the silvery contents into the stone basin.

"Once the memories start to move…place your face into the bowl, d'you understand?" Harry checked with Draco for the former to nod.

"Harry…" Snape called to Harry as the strands of silvery light that were Jeremiah McKinnon's memories began to swirl in the basin.

"Yeah?" Harry called as he and Draco lowered their face towards the surface of the memories, the bowl being wide enough to fit both of their heads in together.

"Take this as a warning…but I do not think you will enjoy what you see in there."

Harry and Draco's faces broke the surface of the see-through contents as their bodies were submerged into the Pensieve and were sucked up into the memories of Lord Voldemort's greatest assassin.


	34. Jeremiah McKinnon

The McKinnons were a family of both Magical and Muggle heritage that had moved down from Scotland in the early 20th century because of an abundance of jobs that were available for wizards and witches down in London. The family lived happily together with well-paid occupations at the Ministry of Magic until the creation of the Death Eaters and the rise of Lord Voldemort. As Britain begun to be terrorised by Dark Magic and saw many Muggles and Muggle-Borns be murdered, Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry's Headmaster at the time had the idea to develop a top-secret organisation to fight against the Death Eaters. With the possibility of a Wizarding World War looming, the secret society led by Dumbledore began working alongside the Ministry to oppose Voldemort and his supporters. Soon enough, the McKinnons, being long-term, experienced Aurors volunteered themselves to be a part of the Order of the Phoenix. As they joined the group in the early 1970's, the head of the McKinnon family; Marlene, was struggling to manage her family and her working life.

At King's Cross Station nearly thirty years previous to how Harry and Draco knew it, they stood by and saw a stout, kind-faced witch that resembled Mrs Weasley guide two children, a young boy and a teenage girl, through the gap between platforms nine and ten. On the other side, at the train station for the Hogwarts Express, platform nine and three quarters, Harry and Draco were able to get a better look at the what Harry assumed was the McKinnon family as it was taken from Jeremiah's memories. Harry suddenly had a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach as he finally realised the strange significance about Jeremiah's surname that had troubled him secretly for some time. He shared the same surname as the family who were slaughtered by Travers, the Death Eater, during the First Wizarding World War. Harry had seen pictures of Marlene, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, before, and had recognised her instantly. All Harry knew of the McKinnon family were that they were dead and had had some connection to the Order. Now, he realised Jeremiah had been a part of that family, but had somehow escaped being murdered like the rest of them. Instead of sharing this with Draco or even escaping the memories, Harry decided to watch and discover the truth behind the McKinnons as their history was exposed to him.

Beside the red steam engine as children with trunks and cages kissed their mothers and fathers goodbye, the McKinnons stood unmoving as Marlene began to speak to her children. The eldest; a tallish girl, around sixteen years old with long brown hair and dark eyes. The other, a small, timid-looking boy who seemed to be only just starting his years at Hogwarts. He had short, black hair and even darker eyes than his older sister. He seemed nervous and trembled as he surveyed his surroundings. Harry assumed this was the eleven year old version of Jeremiah McKinnon. This was the younger incarnation of the insane Death Eater who had been determined to kill him for so many months. Now, he stood metres away from Harry, half his height and beginning to cry as he knew he would soon have to leave his mother's side. His mother, Marlene, spoke to him directly in a soft voice, "Are you ready to get on the train then Jerry?"

"I don't want to go," Jeremiah muttered.

"Oh, stop being silly, you'll enjoy yourself when you get there!"

"But…what if nobody…likes me?"

"Oh!" his mother leant forwards and pecked him on the forehead, "I'm sure you'll make lots of friends, as long as they're the right ones!"

Jeremiah looked puzzled at Marlene's comment, "What do you mean by that?"

"You see…your sister has told me about some of the boys at the school and they're not the people you should make friends with."

"Why, what's wrong with them? Who are they?" Jeremiah had now become slightly more worried about his start to the school.

"There'll be a group of boys at the school who do bad things and I don't want you to be a part of that." Marlene told her small son.

"Mum," Jeremiah's sister interjected, "Why don't you just tell him properly, he's old enough to understand."

Marlene eyed her daughter with a look that said 'shut up' before turning back to the young Jeremiah, "Jeremiah you're aware of what I do, don't you?"

"You're part of the Order?" Jeremiah raised an eyebrow as he became more confused.

Marlene hushed him to be quieter, appearing quite paranoid, possibly because she thought anybody could be near them as they talked, "Yes. And you know that the Order fights-."

"Vol-?" Harry saw a little of himself in McKinnon as he had begun to say Voldemort's name without hesitation or fear just like he had done before he started Hogwarts.

"Don't say it!" Marlene hissed at him, "Yes…him, and the Death Eaters…"

"What's that got to do with people at school though mum?"

"Well…some of their sons and daughters go to your school. As well as some supporters. They are all in a gang at Hogwarts and do terrible things to try and be like their parents or idols…"

"WHAT?!" Jeremiah was then terrified at the thought of his mother's enemies' children possibly sharing the same room or desk with him at his new school.

"Listen to me now, Jerry," his mother calmed him by placing a gentle hand on his shoulder as he shook and breathed heavily, "Do not, and I repeat, do not go near them. Don't talk to them and definitely to do not accept anything from them. If they ask you to be in their gang then you either walk away or say 'no'. D'you understand?"

"Yeah…yes, mum," Jeremiah nodded before saying, "But what if I'm in the same House as them?"

"From what I know, they'll all be in Slytherin. And you, you will not be in there, I promise. You'll be in Gryffindor like me or Ravenclaw like your sister."

"But what if I'm not? What if the 'hat' puts me in Slytherin?"

"Well, at least you won't be in Hufflepuff!" his sister joked. Jeremiah gave her a stern look.

"If you're put in Slytherin, then they should all take you in as a privilege. But I assure you, you won't be put in there. And if you are, keep your distance from that group. Okay?"

"Okay…" Jeremiah murmured under his breath.

"And if you are put into Hufflepuff…well…I'll disown you!"

"What?!"

"I'm kidding. Now, get on that train!"

Marlene had noticed the engine of the Hogwarts Express start to eject steam and the majority of pupils had now boarded. So, she gave Jeremiah a quick hug before kissing him lightly and repeating the same thing onto her unnamed daughter, Jeremiah's sister. The two then took their trunks and a cage with a tawny owl inside it onto the train. Through one of the windows they waved furiously at their mother as the train pulled away and an eleven year old Jeremiah McKinnon broke down into tears…the image then shifted…

Sat shaking on a stool at the front of the Great Hall was the same version of Jeremiah Harry and Draco had just witnessed say goodbye to his mother. Now, he sat with the over-large Sorting Hat on his heat which covered his eyes as the object spoke to him and the rest of the school body sat impatiently awaiting where the boy would be placed.

"Mmm…" the Hat mumbled, "I detect some courage yet possibly a sense of cowardice too…there's intelligence there too, lots of it."

Jeremiah looked a little reassured as the hat spoke but then his expression speedily changed as the Hat continued; "You have lots of ideas…keen as well to get learning. Yet…there's a strong feeling of cunning here. It's like…like it hasn't been unlocked yet but it's there," Harry could tell that Jeremiah was now experiencing the same fear he did eight years ago. The possibility of being sorted into Slytherin was evidently scaring the young boy however, "Still…you're not a Slytherin no but you could be so…RAVENCLAW!"

A much younger Minerva McGonagall then stepped forward and removed the Sorting Hat from Jeremiah's head allowing him to descend down the stone steps, still trembling, as he reached his cheering sister with a small smile. The image changed again as the whole of Ravenclaw house congratulated Jeremiah for joining them…

The grounds were caked in snow as Jeremiah and his sister walked through happily wearing their school robes. As they walked, an enchanted fury of snowballs hit Jeremiah's sister causing her to scream out, "Argh! What the hell?!" Just like Jeremiah, Harry and Draco looked around for signs of the attackers but there was no sign. Through various exclamations, Harry and Draco discovered Jeremiah's sister was called Lucy and she soon left her brother alone as she went back into the castle to dry herself off from the melted snowballs. Now alone in the grounds, Jeremiah, on instinct, went to follow Lucy but not so far away from him a group of teenagers from the sixth and seventh years removed their Disillusionment charms. There was about six of them, all from Slytherin, who encircled Jeremiah who stood still without resistance.

"So…you were the kid who could have been in Slytherin yeah?" a thuggish, seventh year with a flattened nose grunted at Jeremiah.

"No." Jeremiah replied quietly, trying to take on his mother, Marlene's advice. To him, Harry and Draco, it was evidently clear this was a part of the group who were related to and idolised the Death Eaters who were in their early beginnings, before the start of the First Wizarding World War.

"No? Really? Well, the whole school was there…including us…" another boy, slightly taller than the first with thin hair remarked.

"What do you want from me?"

"You confused the Sorting Hat…not many kids do that."

"So?"

"So…you have potential. You were close to being in our House." A third boy interjected.

"My mum told me not to join you and I'm not."

The group of boys burst into a raucous of laughter, "And who's your mum, the Minister for Magic?" one said.

"No…she's part of the Order…" the gang fell silent. They all then ogled Jeremiah with perplexed and some slightly worried looks.

"What Order?" a boy wearing a hood that covered his eyes piped up.

"The Order of the Phoenix."

A couple of the boys gulped, whilst what seemed to be the leader of the gang, the boy who had spoken first, said, "Really? So you know what's going on then? With the Order and the Death Eaters?"

"I'm not telling you anything."

"Did mummy tell you not say anything about that too?" the boy taunted.

"Leave me alone." Jeremiah tried to surpass the surrounding gang but one of them pushed him onto the snowy ground.

"Now. Are you going to tell us anything or will we have to force it out of you?" the leader threatened Jeremiah.

"Leave him alone!" a distant boy's voice echoed around the courtyard as a shower of sparks descended onto the circle of teenagers and caused them to run away into the castle swearing as they did so. Then, from behind one of the pillars nearby, two boys from Gryffindor came to help Jeremiah back onto his feet with broad grins. Harry recognised them instantly. The one who had called out had scraggly long hair and a mischievous expression on his face, the other wore spectacles like Harry's and had jet-black hair. It was Sirius Black and James Potter, the pair also enduring their first year at Hogwarts. They had prevented the gang from harming Jeremiah unknowing that the boy's future friends and leader would kill them…

"Y'aright?" Sirius chuckled giving Jeremiah a hand to pull him onto his feet.

"Yeah, thanks." Jeremiah murmured.

"No problem. It's not fair those guys get to pick on us first years." James quipped.

"They were the Death Eater gang weren't they?" Jeremiah checked.

"Yep. If I was you, I'd stay clear of 'em." Sirius told him.

"I was just walking with my sister…they attacked her, she left me. I couldn't move."

"You seem clued up about them though. Guess being a Ravenclaw helps huh?" James queried.

"What?"

"Being a Ravenclaw…means you're cleverer than the rest."

"I didn't really know-."

"Doesn't matter," Sirius interjected, "Anyway, I'm Sirius and this is my idiot of a friend, James." Sirius shook Jeremiah's hand as did James as he put on a posh accent to say, "Potter, James Potter, what a pleasure to meet you."

Jeremiah laughed light-heartedly, "Gryffindors, yeah?"

"Yeah. Why? Got a problem?" Sirius snapped.

"No. You're fine, it's just Slytherins…"

"Stay away from them, mate. They're bad news."

"I know, my mum…"

"We heard." James said.

"You heard?"

"She works in the Order, hey?" Sirius playfully punched Jeremiah on the arm.

"Don't tell anyone."  
"Why not?" James wondered.

"I don't want anybody else knowing. Especially Slytherins. You saw what happened just then."

"Guess the guy's right." Sirius agreed with the young Jeremiah.

"Thanks."

"But seriously…what is it?"  
"Jeremiah McKinnon."

"Well, Jeremiah, if those guys bother you…" James started.

"We'll get our friend Moony to eat-!" Sirius was then cut short from revealing Remus Lupin's lycanthropy by James hitting him in the chest. Harry found himself laughing at the idiocy of his young godfather and father as they continued.

"Just…let us know. Yeah?"

"Thanks again." James and Sirius then nodded individually before chasing each other, wands in hands, back into the castle. Jeremiah was left to retreat back into the corridors as the memory swapped…

It was exam time, during the summer of Jeremiah's second year at Hogwarts when Harry and Draco saw themselves standing at the side of the Black Lake. Jeremiah, alongside James, Sirius and Lupin, were sat underneath the beech tree Harry always took refuge under with Ron and Hermione. The group of four were laughing and enjoying their break in the sun in-between examinations. Then, a group of boys and some girls proceeded to pass the four under the tree. Some of the gang were the same boys from the previous memory but the rest were new members to the group, the former ones having left, also with a few younger additions. This included Severus Snape who Harry knew had been inducted into the gang against the will of his best friend, Lily Evans…Harry's mother…A couple of the older students and Severus came to a halt near to the tree Jeremiah and the others vacated. The seventh and sixth years were whispering to Severus who seemed to objecting at first to whatever they were suggesting. Then, he succumbed to their pleas and took out his wand and walked near to the tree. As the group of four became curious of what Severus was doing, the latter then fired a stinging hex which Jeremiah just avoided so that it scratched the surface of the tree trunk. Jeremiah, in shock, remained seated as James, Sirius and Remus all jumped to their feet to confront Severus. Remus it seemed was trying to resolve the situation through word of mouth but James and Sirius had other ideas and took out their wands and pointed them in Severus' face.

"What d'you think you're doing, Snivellus?!" Sirius growled at him, sparks spat out of the tip of his wand.

"Stand down, Black." Severus muttered taking another step forward, his wand hand shaking as he stared at Jeremiah. What he was doing was something he didn't agree with but Harry could tell the young Snape felt compelled to do so.

"Severus, whatever they're telling you to do, you don't have to do it," Remus told Severus who shook his head, "You're better than this."

"McKinnon! Get up and fight me!" Severus forcibly shouted.

Jeremiah instead sat quietly, trying to avoid Severus' gaze as James retorted, "If you want to hurt him you'll have to get through us first, won't you?"

"STUPEFY!" a trio of the Death Eater gang behind Severus jeered propelling James, Sirius and Remus onto their backs with roars of laughter. Severus shifted uncomfortably as Jeremiah remained still on the ground. One of the older gang members pushed Severus slightly forward as they began to urge him to fight with Jeremiah with loud cheering. "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT…!" Eventually, Severus gave in and went to fire a curse into Jeremiah's curse when the young Ravenclaw successfully managed to trip over Severus with a deft kick of his foot. So, Severus, frustrated as his fellow gang members giggled at his expense, dived onto Jeremiah before releasing a series of punches and kicks. Jeremiah struggled to keep up his side of the fight as he and Severus scrapped underneath the tree as the continued raucous of Death Eater brought other students near to watch. After a few minutes of mindless fighting, James, Sirius and Remus had recovered from their Stunning spells. Together they threw off Severus and attempted to drag away Jeremiah as the gang of Death Eaters became angered at went to rush into the four boys. As the students then began to fight, Jeremiah hid behind a tree as a second year Lily Evans took Severus' hand and together they avoided the fighting. Then, the memories moved again…

It was Lily again. This memory saw progression into Jeremiah's later years at Hogwarts and this time, the school was in the dark. It was late in the night when Harry and Draco saw Harry's mother, Lily, racing down the corridor, tears streaming from her eyes. Harry realised where this memory had originated from. He had seen his mother like this on a particular night that had featured in Snape's memories. Her and Snape had had disagreements about his regular involvement in Death Eater activities which had left her devastated at what they had changed him into. This memory of Jeremiah's followed on from that certain argument. Lily was returning to the Gryffindor common room when she bumped straight into Jeremiah. He was dressed in his pyjamas and was holding an extinguished lantern in one hand, a book presumably from the Restricted Section in his other one. The two of them looked just as stunned as the other. However, when Jeremiah realised how upset Lily was he immediately tried to console her.

"Lily, isn't it?" he said, she nodded, "What's wrong? What're you doing here?"

"I-I was g-g-going back to m-m-my common r-room…"

"Where've you been?"

"With m-m-m-my friend…"

"You mean, Snivellus?"

Lily hit him on the arm like Sirius had done when the two boys had first met, "Don't call him that!"

"Sorry…so, what happened? You look awful."

"Th-thanks…" she emitted a croaky laugh, "We had a fight."  
"Ah…" Jeremiah said smoothing back his black hair. In the moonlight Harry realised how he had aged, he was now much taller than he had been, similar to Harry now. He didn't look too dissimilar to how he did when he was an adult. The only exceptions were that he had no facial hair and he had some slight acne, "You two…together?"

"Oh, no, not Sev!" she said, "He's my best friend. It's just…"  
"He's scum?"

"Don't say that!" Lily cried, "He's part of that stupid group and I hate him for it but still…he's my friend. Argh!"

"Why did he even join the damned thing? Surely he knows what those nutters do to people?"

"He's in denial. I can't make him see sense!"

"I'm sure he'll listen to you. I mean, I would."

"Hah," Lily giggled, "You're not him though. He's…different is Sev."

"You're telling me. Isn't his family connected to the-?"  
"I don't know. I don't want to know." Lily interrupted Jeremiah, being deliberately ignorant to anything about Severus' involvement in the Death Eater gang.

"Why don't you just get off to bed and talk to him about it tomorrow?"

"Guess so…Well, thanks anyway Jeremiah."

Jeremiah's eyes widened, "You remember my name huh?"

"Who'd forget it. I'm off to bed. Night." Lily then gave Jeremiah a swift smile before making her way back to the Gryffindor common room. Jeremiah on the other hand smiled to himself and looked at Lily as she turned at the corner at the end of the corridor. The setting altered, it was a new memory…

"Guess what?!"

In one of the more secluded streets of Hogsmeade Village, most likely on a visit, during the winter of what possibly looked like Jeremiah's final year, he was with Remus and Peter Pettigrew. Then, the exclamation had come from nearby as an ecstatic James Potter bounded out of the crowd. With a wide grin on his face, the bespectacled seventeen year old shouted, "You won't believe it!"  
"Come on then, what is?!" Jeremiah hollered.

"You know Lily Evans?"  
"Of course he does," Remus inclined about Jeremiah who looked down at his shoes.

"Nearly forgot about that!" James laughed. Harry was slowly making a connection to what the four were discussing but he dared not believe in spite of it being true…he wished it wasn't…

"How long ago was that now?" Peter piped up.

"'Bout eighteen months, give or take?" James quipped, "No more. Didn't last long though did it Jerry?"  
"Nope," Jerry sighed.

Harry realised what the boys were discussing. Jeremiah had temporarily dated Lily, Harry's own mother, soon after the last memory they had just witnessed. From Jeremiah's reaction to mention of her name, Harry assumed the relationship didn't last long and didn't work efficiently which Harry was glad about. He hated the thought that his mother was happy with such an evil man, though he still seemed so normal. No wonder nobody had delved into McKinnon's history, the man had been Harry's arch-nemesis, determined to kill him and all along he had been an old acquaintance of the Marauders, an ex-boyfriend of Lily's and the son of an Order member. In the depth of the man's memories he had not developed into the insane, murdering Death Eater Harry barely knew but was still an innocent Ravenclaw student who was totally against the gang of students who supported Voldemort's followers…Harry soon began to realise that possibly Jeremiah's change had something to do with his own father and the other Marauders…could this be true?

"Anyway, James, what's your news?" Remus said.

"Oh, well, I asked Lily out and…now we're dating!" James laughed as Peter patted him on the back and Remus issued a smirk, Jeremiah's face however fell. As James revealed his new relationship with Lily, Jeremiah clenched his teeth and became abruptly sombre. Harry noticed Jeremiah was annoyed, disappointed and not at all pleased for his friend. It was evident that Jeremiah was more bothered about his absent relationship with Lily than he had first appeared. Harry realised that he still had strong feelings for her and James' smug happiness wasn't helping. The memories jumped…

In the early spring of the same year, Jeremiah, Sirius and James were skiving lessons, sat against a brick wall at the corner of the courtyard, laughing and chattering away. Then, Lily exited one of the corridors from the school and walked into the courtyard and towards the trio of boys who fell silent. James appeared perplexed at the appearance of his girlfriend whereas Jeremiah became solemn and Sirius entered a state of laughter. James jumped to his feet as Lily gestured him to speak aside from the other two boys. As Sirius prompted a momentarily distracted Jeremiah into joining him in being curious about the couple's conversation and laughing about it, Lily talked to James who became serious. Eventually Lily ceased as James turned roughly, livid, as his partner failed to restrain him. Harry's father then lashed his wand at Jeremiah flinging him into the wall to groan in pain before clambering to his feet as did Sirius who yelled, "What're you playing at Prongs?!"

"HIM!" James jabbed in the air in Jeremiah's direction.

"Are we missing something here, Harry?" Draco suddenly turned to Harry.

"Like…?" Harry lamely responded as he stared at his father pin Jeremiah against the brick wall, brimming with fury.

"Your mum and McKinnon dated, right?" Harry nodded as Draco continued, "Why haven't we seen any of it? To see what might of made him so miserable or what provoked your dad to attack him like that?"

"I assume that in his last minutes McKinnon changed back to how he is in these memories. Considering who he was to us I doubt he wanted me to see him happy, dating my dead mum…"

"Ah…so…we'll have to just make our own assumptions?"  
"Guess so…still, he's given us the key memories. I guess he just wanted to show us the facts rather than everything of some significance."

"Harry." Draco inclined his head towards the scene where James then punched Jeremiah so that he slid down to the wall to the horror of Lily and Sirius who pulled James away.

"James! What's up?!" Sirius exclaimed.

"He's been stalking Lily!"

Jeremiah shook his head profusely in denial as Lily gulped, "Rubbish!"

Sirius' eyes lit up in shock as he turned hastily to Lily, "This true, Lil?" Lilly nodded slowly.

"She's lying!" Jeremiah exclaimed.

"Is she hell!" James tried to break away from the restrain of Sirius as Jeremiah stood back against the brick wall.

"Seriously, what's going on, James? Jeremiah?" Sirius asked his friends as Lily took a step backwards to avoid being entangled in any perusing confrontations.

"He's been following her around," James began, his index finger wavering at Jeremiah, "He's been sending her weird messages…it's been going on for months, even before we started dating!"

"But why would Jerry do that? Jerry?" Sirius quizzed them.

"It's obvious he's still in love with her! He's become desperate, so much so that he's taken it upon himself to stalk her!"

"That doesn't sound like you though Jeremiah," Sirius admitted to his friend.

"That's because it isn't true, Padfoot."

"Thing is I don't think Lily would lie to either me or James."

"So, you believe her over me, huh?"

"I don't want to but I guess so. In the area of honesty, I will always believe both her and James over you."

"Why's that, hey?!" Jeremiah shoved Sirius back a little with the palm of his hand.

"Because, they've never lied to me, only you have!" Sirius pushed Jeremiah back.

"I've only lied to a couple of times and they were necessary!"

"That's crap and you know it! There were some major things that you lied about and that's why I've never really been able to trust you as much as the others."

"I don't see how lying about homeworks for a laugh or telling the little white lie here and there about things unrelated to you matters so much?!"

"Because it's still lying, Jerry!" Sirius' voice echoed off the walls as Jeremiah shook his head again.

"This is because I never tell you anything about the Order isn't it?" Jeremiah simpered.

"Bugger off, of course it isn't!"

"Yeah, right!" Jeremiah claimed sarcastically as he continued, "You've always been desperate to find out things and you know full well I can't tell you any of it."

"Yet there are things we should know about that are happening to the world we're living in."

"You're talking about the Wizarding World War, yeah?"

"Exactly. You knew the entire time before it was announced that it was going on, didn't you? But you didn't care to warn your own friends that Voldemort's started war on everybody that doesn't kiss his feet!"

"You were going to find out, anyway…"

"Thing is though, your mum's a part of the Order. And you're her son. Through links we could suffer because of your connection to the Order! But oh no, don't mention it, don't mention the threat to our lives at all!"

"We're getting kinda off subject now, aren't we Sirius?" Jeremiah queried, "I'd rather not discuss the upcoming war and the threat it poses to my entire family, never mind you lot."

"Anything to avoid talking about it…" Sirius muttered under his breath, "So…going to admit it then? Your stalking?"

"I'm not admitting to anything." Jeremiah spat, turning rather red as he starred at Lily who avoided his glare.

"You might as well wear a massive sign saying; 'I scare girls' with how obvious you're being. Lily would never lie to me." James argued.

"Whatever I've supposedly done did not have the intention to scare anybody."

"So you do admit it then?!"

Jeremiah just ignored James' comment and took to looking at the floor as Lily spoke up, "You did scare me though, Jerry…you might of not meant to but you did."

Jeremiah looked up to engage eye contact with Lily, his voice much quieter and softer now, "Don't you get it, Lily? Don't you understand?"

"Understand what?" Harry's young mother looked lost.

"I still…eurgh…how can I say this…? I just…I am sorry, Lily. Seriously, I am."

"Sorry for what? You didn't do anything?"

"Well…what…what made you end…us?"

Lily took her time before responding to Jeremiah's fumbled words, "I just wasn't working for me."

"But I thought we…we…we got on together well, right?"

"Friends get along well with each other, Jeremiah."

Jeremiah looked despondently at his feet, "But I thought we were always more than that? We had a…a connection, no? I mean…"

"Jerry," Lily's soft voice interrupted him, "I was wrong…I thought we had something and we did, sort of, and that was good but…your feelings for me were different than mine to you. I could have never shared your feelings, I don't know why but I just didn't feel like I…I…"

"Loved me?" Jeremiah stated, "Just say it, Lily. You didn't love me but I loved you. I wasn't really aware of this, okay? I'll be honest…I seriously thought we had something, Lil. I thought you loved me back. That's why I watched you and followed you and tried so desperately to talk to you because I didn't know you had no love for me."

"I did have love for you and I still do, just not that sort of love."

"Then what?" Jeremiah snapped shortly.

"Friendship, Jerry…friendship. Nothing more, nothing less. You can't be anything more than that to me. I can't love you." Lily admitted, attempting to look into Jeremiah's eyes which were now focussed on a stone on the ground as James and Sirius remained stock still nearby, watching the on-going conversation.

"You can't, did you say?" Jeremiah replied stiffly.

"Don't take it the wrong way…"

"Of course I'm going to take it the wrong way unless you tell me the bloody tell me why you can't love me?!" Jeremiah was becoming more and more visibly agitated now as he spoke, stressing the word "can't" in slight disbelief.

"I don't know what it is but you're too complex, Jerry."

"Complex?!"

"You keep everything to yourself. You didn't tell me anything. As a couple you're supposed to share and I did that with you. I've told you things that even James and Severus don't know yet. And then, you didn't tell me anything. It seems…your family's involvement with the Order of the Phoenix has changed you, Jerry." Lily continued to bare a guilty expression on her face as she spoke to Jeremiah. Harry knew his mother was feeling bad for telling Jeremiah these truths.

"Changed me?! Changed me, how?!"

"You've been sworn to secrecy, not to tell anybody anything about the Order and the thing is the Order has become your life. Your family belongs to the Order and so your life revolves around the damn Order. And as the Order declines deeper into the beginnings of this war, the more your life is consumed with secrecy and guilt and fear about your family. You've now been so used to keeping so many things a secret that you've made your own life one. That's how you've changed, Jerry. You've taken your family's part in the Order so seriously that your whole nature has evolved around it…don't you see!" Lily explained to Jeremiah who still remained angry-looking yet quite accepting of the facts he was being informed of.

"See what exactly?"

"I'm not the right person to handle you. Until you resolve whatever personal matters or worries you have about your own family and the Order, you're not in the fit state to be in any kind of relationship. Especially not in one with me, somebody who's got a bad enough history as it is!"

"Hah!" Jeremiah dignified, "Your history?!"

"Being the only magical member of your own family has its repercussions, Jeremiah!" Lily gained a tear in her eye as she raged, "I was so close to my sister! And these abilities ruined everything! Being a witch made her hate me and because of magic I lost Tuney, I lost her, Jerry! My own sister turned against me! And don't forget about my heritage. Oh, no. A Muggle-Born isn't very common and not very well liked by many, especially during times like these!"

"Lily, I'm-!" Jeremiah struggled to produce an apology as Lily cut him off.

"MUDBLOOD! Yes, Mudblood! That's what I am! I have to deal with that every day, everywhere I go! The world is becoming a darker place and it's targeting people like me! Mudbloods across the country are being slaughtered, Jerry, slaughtered! How do you think I feel, hey?! But no! You never, once, not once, bothered about it, did you?!"

"I-!" Jeremiah failed to rebuttal again as Lily's inner anger exploded in a fury of words.

"You might never of talked about home, or your childhood or anything like that but it would always be something like; 'Quidditch this' and 'Snivellus that'! Well, I couldn't stand it, okay? You never, ever bothered about me, Jeremiah. And that's why I couldn't handle being with you because of your selfishness. All you had to do one day was just turn to me and say; 'Lily, are you alright?'. But it never happened and I will never forgive you for that." Lily began to cry so James walked towards her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder consolingly as she wept.

"And he gives you that does he?! JAMES POTTER! The cocky bastard, the Seeker and the all-around idiot that everybody loves? He gives you that attention that you crave?!"

"Don't you dare say a word against my friend," Sirius interjected steadily.

"You say 'my friend' like he's not mine anymore?"

"Of course I'm not your damn friend anymore, Jeremiah!" James bellowed, "You've upset and scared Lily and betrayed me! You're a liar and you keep things to yourself that should be shared! With everything going on in the world, I don't need people like you!"

"What do you want me to do? Go away?!" Jeremiah sung a childish voice.

"You're bloody right, yes!"

"Like I need your so called pity anymore, Potter," Jeremiah snarled, "I guarantee you that your arrogance will end up killing you."

James went to strike Jeremiah with his fist until Sirius prevented him, "Get out of my sight before I hex you!" James cried.

"How mature, I'll be going…" Jeremiah then adjusted his robes before beginning to walk away from the trio. James was breathing heavily, his nostrils flaring as Sirius gulped and wiped away the sweat from his brow and Lily remained staring at the concrete ground, emotionless.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish." James sighed.

Jeremiah turned back to Sirius briefly, "Sure you don't want leave this idiot?"

"Sorry, I'm too busy trying to get rid of another one at the moment," Sirius then turned away from Jeremiah. The other two also refused to look at the teenager as he shook his head once more and skulked his way back across the courtyard and into the school. The image faded and another one soon replaced it as Draco and Harry progressed into Jeremiah McKinnon's memories…

In the Great Hall, time had most likely only moved on by a few weeks and so approaching the summer term, the students of Hogwarts became less formal when it came to seating arrangements at meal times. Students from different houses sat with one another on the long tables. Harry noticed immediately that Jeremiah sat alone at the end of the Ravenclaw table as two tables away the Marauders, Lily and some other Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff all sat laughing and chattering away. Jeremiah sat with nobody around him as stirred the food on his plate miserably, looking glumly into space. Before he could take a mouthful of peas though, Severus Snape slid onto the bench beside him with a smirk on his face.

"So, why aren't you over there with the other moronic imbeciles then McKinnon?" Severus simpered.

"Do one, Snivellus."

"The offence would have been more effective if you'd been backed up by your group of cocky, arrogant Gryffindors."

"D'you want something Snape, or what?!" Jeremiah growled.

"Oh, touchy…" Severus chuckled, "So, why aren't you with them? I've noticed you've been distant from each other."

"What's it got to do with you?"

"I thought you were all good friends?"

"Exactly. Were."

"Ah, I see…"

"No, you don't!" Jeremiah argued, "You know why? Because you have no friends!"

"And neither do you now it seems."

"Is there any other reason, apart from gloating, for why you're here, Snape?" Jeremiah complained.

"Potter took my best friend and your girlfriend. We've both got messed up pasts. Both of us our outsiders…"

"What're you hinting at?"

"We're similar you and I, Jeremiah."

Jeremiah snorted, "Hah!"

"You cover up admittance of the truth through laughter…you know well full that it's true."

Jeremiah propped his head on top of where the palms of his hands met under his chin and gazed at the back of Lily's head as she giggled and James pecked her lightly on the forehead, "Maybe we have our…similarities."

"You've lost your friends, Jeremiah…"

"What're you getting at?" Jeremiah had become irritated by this point.

"I'm not a total outcast yet and neither are you…you're lonely and misguided and need friends that are more loyal…"

"Are you talking about what I think you are because if I'm right, and you are, I don't want to know, alright?!" Jeremiah blasted at Severus who offered a small smile.

"Join us, Jeremiah."

"You know I can't and I wouldn't anyway, Snape," Jeremiah stated quickly without thinking.

"Ah, yes, I remember now. Your mother, Marlene, is it? She's part of the Order, yes?"

"Like you didn't already know."

"I heard the secrets you've been keeping about the Order and the stress it's caused has changed you…the others couldn't handle you anyone, yeah?"

"How the bloody hell d'you…?!" Jeremiah swivelled round on the bench to face Snape.

"Potter might have his foot in the door but it hasn't completely stopped Lily being my friend."

"Oh…right…her…" Jeremiah temporarily lost focus as he glimpsed at Lily again.

"I can tell you hate hiding secrets for the Order."

"So what if I do. If I didn't and I let things slip out then rotten people like you and your Death Eater friends would find out and cause havoc. And to be honest, I'm not a fan of havoc. What about you?"

"Only if its necessary havoc, Jeremiah."

"So you think slaughtering Muggles and Muggle-borns by the hundreds is necessary?"

"They happen to be casualties of a greater cause."

Jeremiah laughed indignantly, "Greater cause?! Hah! You believe what You Know Who stands for is good?"

"No, not exactly."

"What do you stand for, Severus?"

Severus looked at Jeremiah blankly, "Excuse me?"

"Well, you're good friends with Lily, always have been. Yet, you're a part of that Death Eater group. You're a Slytherin and proud to be one. However, you don't appear to support or condone the actions of You Know Who."

"Let's be frank here Jeremiah," Snape stared directly into Jeremiah's dark eyes with his own, "If it wasn't for that group, I wouldn't have any friends."

"That's the only reason you joined them isn't it? Just so that you could have friends. You don't really support the abuse of those who aren't pure blooded?"

"Without that group, I would be lonely. And that loneliness would remind me of my godforsaken childhood which I do not wish to have any memories of," Snape exhaled bitterly, "My goal coming to this school was to gain friendships, I admit that. I didn't want to be like I was back then. So, yes, the main reason why I joined the group is because they asked me to. People my age genuinely wanted to have some sort of relationship with me and being how I am, I accepted without considering the consequences of my actions. A part of me felt it was wrong joining the group against the wishes of Lily but it was something I felt I had to do."

Jeremiah contemplated Severus' words for responding in a slow voice, "So, you just joined the group out of loneliness? The thing is though, you aren't going to gain any more friends through being a part of that stupid group, you know? You've almost lost Lily already. If you don't agree with what they're doing and what they support then just leave."

"How can I? I refuse to become lonesome again. Plus, the group has it's positive qualities."

Jeremiah snorted again at Severus' words, "Sorry, what?! It has its positive qualities? Snape, are you mad? With this wizarding world war approaching, belonging to a group that's directly linked to You Know Who's main followers is a bad move. The Order of the Phoenix will target you, I know that, believe me. Seriously, what insane part of you wants me to join this group and keeps you there?"

"The Death Eaters do one thing which I completely back. And that is the removal of people in the world like James Potter."

"I'm sorry? Can you…expand?"

"The arrogance, the swagger, the superiority and the overall stinking attitude of Gryffindors and pure blooded families like his have made my life hell and so for that reason that is why I support the Death Eaters. They take the correct steps forward in wiping the world clean of that vermin." Snape's quite sharp, longish nails scraped the wooden table leaving a few marks as he gritted his teeth. Jeremiah looked upon him with indifference.

"And so why do you recommend I join this group, huh?"

"For similar reasons to mine. Loneliness and the forbiddance of people like James Potter to exist. That's why. Plus, the burden of the secrets you keep for the Order on behalf of your unloving family."

"How dare you speak a word against my family!" McKinnon who had begun to roll a butter knife between his fingers suddenly stabbed the piece of cutlery into the table in anguish.

"I can tell it easily a mile off, Jeremiah. You hate your family because they neglect you. Considering I've experienced the same thing, it's easy to detect."

Jeremiah removed the knife from the table and gently placed it down, "Their lives have been consumed by the Order, Snape. It isn't their fault they can never find the time to-."

"Untrue," Severus interrupted, "A family should always at least attempt to put aside time for their relatives."

"I guess you're right, in a way," Jeremiah admitted solemnly, "They are my family after all. I'm just sick of being forgotten. We're at home for over two months during the summer and there'll be barely a day when I can play Quidditch with my dad or even do some gardening with my mum. The Order's changed them. They've lost their love for me and my sister. Their paranoia and unnecessary workloads from both their normal jobs and the Order have conflicted their emotions. I could do nothing wrong and be unfairly punished. They might think they love me but they sure don't show it anymore. I can't be doing with that. I can't spend my time and keep secrets for people who don't treat me in the right way. It's not fair."

"And that is why you should come with me and join the group, Jeremiah. We can be your friends, the people who you can trust. You'll soon see the friendships you form compensate for the missing love of your family and trust me when I say this but it will. I promise. Forget Potter, Black and the others, they aren't the right people for you to spend your time with. They don't understand you and treat you like friends should. If you remember correctly, the Sorting Hat considered putting you in Slytherin with the rest of us. Don't deny that there was an inkling then that said to you that maybe you did deserve to be placed in our House. Who knows. Your seven years here could have been so much better if you had been placed in Slytherin, Jeremiah."

"That's just your personal opinion." Jeremiah dismissed.

"Don't you remember that night? The night the Sorting Hat was too big for head and slipped over your eyes as it spoke to you? Because I fully remember my experience. It was terrifying. I knew I'd end up Slytherin due to my family's history in the House but a major part of me didn't really want to belong to it. What are your memories of that night then huh?"

"I remember not being able to see anything apart from the brim of the hat. Everything else was dark. I can remember shaking. I was both nervous and scared. I felt sick at the time. I was dreading which House I was going to be put in. I didn't want to be put into Hufflepuff out of embarrassment and Slytherin because of its current reputation for bad wizards," Severus cocked his jaw as Jeremiah said these words with a concentrative expression as he recaptured his thoughts from that day, "Then the Hat said what it said and I don't think I've ever been so worried since. It detected courage. I wasn't courageous at the time and I'm definitely still not now. I was just a scared little boy and the only thing that has changed is height and age. He was right about the cowardice. I am a coward but I'm certainly not brave. That's when I began to doubt the Hat's judgement and that continued further," Jeremiah rubbed his eyes as he remembered his Sorting, "The Hat said I could be cunning, in the future. I couldn't believe that. I didn't believe any of his judgements because they weren't me. He said I could be a Slytherin but I wasn't at the same time."

"Maybe…and I know this will sound, well, outrageous, but what if…if…the Hat can see into the future."

"I'll admit, the Hat's seriously intelligent. The amount of magic it contains is unbelievable. It's no surprise if I can. Why'd you say that anyway?"

"Well, what if the Hat was merely detecting your future personality traits that you're going to develop as a direct result of joining the group. Those qualities are those of strength and you can develop them through joining us, I assure you. Joining the Death Eaters will resolve your loneliness and neglect from your supposed friends and family and will give you strengthening qualities. Trust me. Join us."

"And you can guarantee can you that I'll feel better. Also ensure me that I do not have to have links with the group's connections. Promise me I won't have to join in any activities that will harm anybody. I will join you on the pretence that I can leave whenever I want. I'm not going to remain a part of the group if the situation gets out of control. Agreed?"

"Agreed, Jeremiah, agreed."

Jeremiah gulped and cricked his neck as he caught another glance at the Marauders and Lily, "One of the only reasons why I am going to do this is, is on the agreement that whatever mistreatment you give James, I want in, understood?"

"Understood, completely and utterly."

"Thanks…" Jeremiah extended his hand, "Consider me your new member then."

Severus then shook Jeremiah's hand as Severus developed a smirk and the memories shifted…

"So, Jerry, what're your plans for today?"

It was during the summer holidays most likely just after the completion of Jeremiah's last year at Hogwarts. He was sat at the kitchen table of what was most likely his home, eating his breakfast with his mother Marlene, sister Lucy and what was most likely his father.

"I'll probably go out later." Jeremiah replied statically.

"Oh, with Lily and James and that?" Jeremiah's father questioned with some uncertainty.

Jeremiah instantly retorted with, "Don't you ever bloody listen to me? Don't you remember my separation from them months ago that I wrote you a letter about and spoke to you about on numerous occasions when I came back from Hogwarts."

"Oh, must of slipped my mind…" his father sighed complacently as he stirred the cereal in his bowl of milk.

"Slipped your mind?" Jeremiah became suddenly outraged, "SLIPPED YOUR MIND?!"

"Jeremiah what on earth is wrong?!" Marlene cried.

"It's just ridiculous!" he slammed his hand onto the table, "It's just bloody typical of you dad! Everything slips your mind about me! Actually, no, not just me but Lucy too!" Jeremiah wavered his finger in his sister's direction who gulped as Jeremiah continued his rant, "You don't take bloody notice of us anymore! I'm sorry but this has been winding up me up for months now! I can't continue not saying anything!"

"Jeremiah, what's the problem?! Will you just calm down!" his father shouted.

"No! Will I hell calm down! This is just getting stupid now! The damn Order has changed not just you but everybody in our family involved with it! You've got so deep into it all that you've forgotten about us! You might say that you love us, yeah, but do you really mean it? Do you really?!"

"Of course we do, Jerry!" Marlene exclaimed.

"That's not true and you know it! You, dad, uncle Stanley, Carrie, all of you…it's…it's consumed you! All of you have become so obsessed with the Order, risking your lives for a cause that can't be won and for what huh? You're neglecting your children! You don't care about us unless we happen to say something related to the damn Order!"

"Why can't the cause be won, Jeremiah? Tell me. How is protecting innocent Muggles and Muggle borns something pointless in fighting for?" his father argued.

"Because it's a war that can't be won, dad!" Jeremiah argued, "The Death Eaters will crush the Order because they're led by You Know Who and he's more powerful than anybody. Plus, it isn't just Muggles and Muggle borns that the Death Eater's get rid of!"

"JEREMIAH MCKINNON DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU ARE SAYING?!" Marlene screeched at her son as he stood up and flung his bowl of cereal into the wall so that the milk splattered down onto the floor.

"YES! I DO! FROM WHAT I KNOW YOU DON'T STAND A CHANCE MUM!"

"Why are you saying these things, Jeremiah? Have you…?! NO! NO! You have, haven't you?! YOU SWORE YOU WOULDN'T! YOU PROMISED ME ON YOUR FIRST DAY THAT YOU WOULDN'T!"

"What the hell are you talking about Marlene?!" Jeremiah's father interjected.

"When you were stuck in the Ministry on Jerry's first day I warned him not to join the Death Eater group at Hogwarts!"

"Right…? And…?" then realisation of what had happened then washed over Jeremiah's father, "YOU DIDN'T?!"

"SO, WHAT IF I DID?! HEY?! WOULD YOU ACTUALLY CARE?! YOU DON'T BOTHER ABOUT ME!" Jeremiah complained for Lucy to push her chair away from the table as Jeremiah, a blank expression on her face. Marlene's jaw then dropped and she put a hand to her forehead, Jeremiah's father's eyes went immediately wide, his brow furrowed.

"Jeremiah….I love you so very much…but…you must tell me one thing, right now…" Marlene lowered her tone as she spoke to her son who breathed heavily and clenched the edge of the kitchen table with his hands, "Have you or have you not joined the Death Eater group from Hogwarts? Yes or no?"

Jeremiah sniffed the air and gulped, avoiding eye contact with his mother before replying simply, "Yes."

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Jeremiah's father suddenly ripped into a blaze of anger, "FROM NOW ON CONSIDER YOURSELF OUR ENEMY!" The wizard then charged around the kitchen table to seize Jeremiah by the scruff of the neck and began to drag him out of the house via the back door against the protests of Marlene who cried for her husband to stop.

"HAMISH!" Marlene screamed at her husband as he kicked open the door and threw Jeremiah out.

"WE CAN'T HAVE HIM HERE ANYMORE, MARLENE!" Hamish, Jeremiah's father, placed his hands on his wife's shoulders to try and calm her down.

"But he's our son!"

"He's a traitor! If he stays here any longer he will tell them everything if he hasn't done already! If he carries on living here, being a part of that gang would eventually see the Death Eaters find out everything to do with the Order! We could lose the war thanks to our own son! He's probably told them everything, haven't you boy?!"

"NO!" Jeremiah shouted back angrily, "I haven't! I didn't join them for that reason! To thwart you! No! I did it out of loneliness! I needed friends because I didn't have the love from my own family! That's why I joined them!"

"WE DO LOVE YOU JEREMIAH!" Hamish contradicted his son, "We're just overwhelmed with protecting innocent people that we haven't the time to look after you and I'm sorry!"

"BUT YOU'RE NOT SORRY!"

"Jerry, we are!" Marlene tried to convince her son.

"NO, BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO BUSY GUARDING MUDBLOODS!"

Silence then fell as Jeremiah's last word stuck in the air as his mother and father's faces became horrified with what their son had said.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" Hamish then erupted.

"MUDBLOOD!" Jeremiah screamed at his father, spitting slightly as his mother gasped.

"Don't you ever say that word!" Marlene ordered him, "You have changed Jeremiah! This is not you!"

"Well, maybe it is now?!"

"NO! IT ISN'T! The old Jeremiah would never say such a thing. You've spent too much time in that group's company haven't you? You've altered your ways! YOU'RE BECOMING ONE OF THEM AREN'T YOU?!"

"No, I'm not! I'M NOT ONE OF THEM!"

"Then, leave the group!"

"I…I can't?!" Jeremiah exclaimed, "If I leave I will have nobody else left. They make me feel better about myself. And you know why? Because people like you are ruining my life and they aren't like you and that's why I prefer their company to yours! The jobs you do have made you neglect me! They support their parents who love them who strive for a winnable cause!"

"So, you believe killing innocent people is right?!" Hamish roared.

"As long as Muggles and Mudbloods live they are always going to be protected by people like you two! And for the benefit of those close to people like you, I think it's best that you aren't protecting these people! Why risk your lives protecting people that are going to wind up dead anyway whether they're killed by Death Eaters or not?! SO, YES! YES! YOU KNOW WHAT?! YOU KNOW WHAT?! THEY SHOULD ALL DIE! ALL OF THEM! WHY NOT, HUH?! WHY NOT?!" Jeremiah delivered a drawn-out cry as Marlene failed to restrain Hamish who unsheathed his wand at pointed it at his son.

"YOU ARE NO SON OF MINE ANYMORE!"

"Hamish, he doesn't know what he's saying! He's troubled, can't you see that?! We need to help him! He doesn't believe what he's saying!" Marlene urged her husband to refrain from harming their son.

"OF COURSE I DO! WHY NOT?! WHY SHOULDN'T THEY DIE?!"

"If you wasn't my son you'd be sent to Azkaban effective immediately but because you are…get out of my sight." Hamish spat defeated, lowering his wand as Jeremiah got back onto his feet.

"I'd be glad to." Jeremiah quipped spitefully before taking out his own wand, turning on his heel and Disapparating. As Jeremiah did so, the memories that Harry and Draco witnessed accelerated forwards…

"You do understand that you can't live here for the rest of your life, don't you Jeremiah?"

In a bedroom above the Leaky Cauldron what seemed only a couple of years since Jeremiah exited his home forever, the former now sat on a spindly, wooden chair facing Severus Snape who leant against the door frame.

"I'm happy here, thanks, Severus." Said Jeremiah.

"Oh, you might be, up until they find out you're one of us and kick you out of here and send the Ministry or the Order after you, to hunt you down."

"I haven't done anything wrong."

"Yet, you haven't, no."

"And I will never do so."

"I doubt it," Severus began, "Now that we've left Hogwarts we're fully established Death Eaters. You were branded, Jeremiah, it's too late now."

Jeremiah rolled up the sleeve of his robes to reveal a fresh, red tattoo of a snake protruding out of the mouth of a skull. The Dark Mark.

"Branded, yeah, forcibly though. I didn't fully agree to having that. I don't want to be a part of the 'inner circle' thanks."

"It isn't my fault they we were inducted into it." Severus stated.

"You promised me that when I joined you that I would have the ability to leave whenever I wanted."

"I wasn't aware that as soon as we left Hogwarts we'd be ushered into becoming real Death Eaters though did I?"

"Vol-…You Know-…the Dark Lord said…said that we now belong to him for the rest of our lives, though, Snape!"

"Well, I apologise for not foreseeing such a thing. However, there is nothing we can do about it so we must deal with it."

"So…" Jeremiah slouched in his chair and brushed his hair backwards, "We just…do nothing? We remain in the fellowship do we? And when we are eventually asked to carry something out I guess we have no choice but to do so?"

"I suppose so," Severus accepted, "But I thought that is what you wanted, yes? You wanted death for the Mudbloods and Muggles? You, yourself told me that's what you said to your parents the day you left home."

"I did. It doesn't mean that I agree with it though, Severus."

"Well, unless you want to be killed by the Dark Lord, you have no other choice when it comes to it. Understand?"

"We'll see."

Severus was about to exit the room when he popped his head back around the door and asked, "Oh, and by the way, did you hear about your dear friends?"

"Excuse me, what?" Jeremiah quizzed Severus bemusedly.

"The Marauders and Lily have all joined the Order of the Phoenix. We're officially enemies in war."

As Snape then exited the room, Jeremiah's face became sombre and his eyes became unfocused as the image dissolved and another one formed as the tale of Jeremiah's life continued…

Jeremiah was sat alone in a darkened dungeon room three quarters of the way down a long, well-polished oak table laden with a silk, black cloth. Time had moved on a couple of more years since the last memory that Harry and Draco had watched. There were enchanted candles dripping hot wax onto the floor that orbited the table which Jeremiah ogled at before out of nowhere, Lord Voldemort emerged from the shadows. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin as Draco's eyes flitted open. They then came to realise that this version of Voldemort wasn't real, they were only seeing him as part of a memory. Remembering this reinstated their concentration on the memory itself as the hooded, black robed figure's presence made Jeremiah jump to his feet.

"My Lord." Jeremiah muttered nervously before producing a jerky courtesy.

Voldemort responded by suggesting Jeremiah lift his head back up by gesturing with his pale fingers before speaking through the hood of his robes. His face was half covered by his hood and the other half shrouded in the shadow formed by the hood. Being unable to see Voldemort's face, Harry wasn't as petrified of the wizard as he would usually be. Harry was unsure of what Voldemort had even looked like during the time of the Wizarding World War as his only memory of him was wearing the same robes as he did now, murdering his parents.

"Ah, Jeremiah, how pleased I am for you to have made it tonight…" Voldemort's chillingly familiar high, cold voice echoed in the dungeon.

"It's my pleasure to meet with you my Lord." Jeremiah lied.

"So, I assume you wonder why your presence was required tonight?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"First of all, I am glad that we have now had the opportunity to meet one another on a one to one, more personal basis."

"So do I, my Lord." Jeremiah's voice was shaky as he lied to his master.

"You see, you have now been a part of my following for over four years Jeremiah and yet we have never spoken like this and I have never had the ability, therefore, to grant you with a particular task."

"That is correct, my Lord."

"As one of my own now Jeremiah you must perform in order to retain your place here."

"The problem is my Lord that I have a conflicting opinion about what you are saying."

Voldemort cocked his head backwards in surprise at Jeremiah's comment, "Which is?"

"I do not wish to belong to the Death Eaters anymore."

Voldemort issued a cackle, "HA! You do not wish to follow me from this time on, Jeremiah?"

"No, I do not, my Lord."

"And why is that?"

"I have oppositional views to what you have about Muggles and Muggle borns."

Voldemort spat onto the ground, "You disagree that the filth of these worlds are most deserved of punishment?"

"No, I don't agree."

"But, correct me if I am mistaken, isn't that one of the sole reasons you offered to your family upon your abandonment of them?"

"I was angry, I over exaggerated, these things happen."

"You see, Jeremiah, your loyalty to me isn't the sole purpose of this conversation…"

"Then what is it then…my Lord?" Jeremiah was apprehensive now as he appeared to of slightly irritated Voldemort.

"Well, I organised this meeting for another reason, Jeremiah," Voldemort then sighed, "You see, I believe that after my revelation you will change your confused opinions about the Muggle and Mudblood scum."

"Why is that?" Jeremiah wondered.

"I apologise beforehand but I thought it correct if I was to one to inform you of what has happened to your obviously beloved family." Voldemort's words lingered in the air for a while until Jeremiah, who spoke like he had something stuck in his throat, murmured in response.

"What do you mean? What's happened to my family?" he became more and more worried as he urged Voldemort to answer him, "Tell me what has happened to them!"

"I'm sorry to inform you but your entire family was massacred earlier this evening, Jeremiah," Voldemort's voice was absent of sympathy of he told Jeremiah of the extinction of his own family. Harry knew this moment was coming as he was already aware of a particular McKinnon family related to the Order of the Phoenix who had been all killed. Harry now understood why both Peter Pettigrew and Lily, his mother, has both been so majorly upset by the deaths of the family. Harry distinctly remembered how his mother had sobbed on hearing about the end of the McKinnons in a memory. He also remembered however during the trial of Igor Karkaroff had distinctly identified Travers the Death Eater as the person responsible for the deaths of the McKinnons. Harry knew Travers was actually responsible so the memory Harry was currently watching confused him. If Voldemort wanted Jeremiah to become more loyal as a supporter and Harry knew that Jeremiah would develop into a horrendous Death Eater then how would the death of the McKinnons prompt that. If Jeremiah was against what the Death Eater's stood for then how would his family being slaughtered by the Death Eaters gain his loyalty to them. Harry's questions though were soon answered.

"What…?" Jeremiah muttered quietly in disbelief as he scratched his head thoroughly.

"There had been some kind of birthday celebrations happening which meant all of your family happened to be in the same place at the same time. An unfortunate coincidence because they then were all killed as a result."

Jeremiah then collapsed onto his knees and delivered a wailing, throat-tearing scream which reverberated very loudly around the dungeon room. He then began to rock uncontrollably and burst into a fury of tears as he sobbed and moaned as he realised what had happened. The extinction of his entire family had destroyed Jeremiah McKinnon instantaneously.

"ARGH! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! IT WAS-! IT W-W-WAS-! I-IT WAS L-L-L-LUCY'S BIRTHD-D-DAY! NO IT CAN'T B-B-BE TRU-UE! THEY AREN'T-! THEY W-WEREN'T-! THEY'RE N-NOT D-D-D-D-DEAD! W-WHO W-W-WOULD DO THAT?! WHO D-DID IT?! WHO, WHO KILLED T-T-THEM?! WHO DID IT?! TELL M-ME!"

Voldemort then gradually began to manipulate an incredibly vulnerable and weak Jeremiah and began to lie, "I'm not entirely certain. The most trustworthy rumour concerning the events report it was some sort of Mudblood or Muggle enthused group. There was one rumour that said it could of possibly been an Order coup…"

Draco turned to Harry hastily, "He's lying isn't he? I heard about this. It was Travers, right?" Harry nodded before the pair of them returned to watching as Jeremiah cradled his knees and shook. His sobbing lowered in volume so he was able to communicate with the deceptive Voldemort.

"W-W-WHY?! TH-THEY WERE A P-P-PART OF THE ORDER?! THEY P-PROTECTED THE MUGGLES AND -! I D-DON'T UNDERSTAND?! WHY W-WOULD THEY DO THAT?! MY FAMILY?! ALL OF THEM?!"

"Supposedly the family members of yours that worked within the Ministry and the Order weren't protecting the Mudbloods and Muggles efficiently enough. As you know full well I and the Death Eaters have been successfully winning this war and so the Mudbloods and Muggles being the insane mongrels have gone mad. They've killed your family because they were an integral part of the central resistance. They were sick of being badly protected and so went wild."

"Are you sure?! Are you sure that it was them?! ARE YOU SURE?!" Jeremiah hollered.

Voldemort expanded his lies further, "Yes. I understand that you originally joined my cult on a whim to achieve friendship to replace the neglect you received from your unloving family…now you see, I just assumed that you were just another young wizard who deemed my cause to be correct. That's why I forced you to become part of the inner circle, Jeremiah. That and I saw potential. Unlimited potential of greatness. This greatness has been locked away during your years doing nothing to contribute to the workings of the Death Eaters. Now, you have the chance to unleash your greatness and take revenge for the deaths of the family that you loved unconditionally." Voldemort's statement then managed to gradually cause Jeremiah to refrain from continuing his breakdown. His crying soon became silent and he lifted his head out of his heads and looked up at Voldemort.

"So…the Muggles and the…you know…killed my family?" Jeremiah gritted his teeth a little as he tried to regain control of his emotions, speaking more steadily now.

"On how many occasions have I warned all of you of their inhumanity...something like this was bound to occur eventually, Jeremiah." Voldemort lied again.

"They're sick…they killed my family, even those not involved with the Order or the Ministry and what for? Because they belonged to the side that happened to be losing? The Order and the Ministry campaign to protect the Muggles and the Mudbloods and they're rewarded with that…You're going to carry on this war and keep on winning which means that more events like this might happen. If Muggles and Mudbloods and blood traitors are going to kill their protectors then we might as well kill them. I want to kill them. I also want to kill the organisations that took away my family from me and saw them dead…" Jeremiah ejaculated furiously as a sudden driving passion for a fight against the side he once stood for rose within him at Voldemort's lies.

"You're going to become loyal to the winning side then Jeremiah? The side where we are loyal to one another, offer support to one another and fight against the Order and the Ministry who sacrifice innocent lives and then against the Muggles and the Mudbloods and the blood traitors who are a disgrace to the wizarding name?" Voldemort continued his encouragement to Jeremiah to evolve his hatred for the opposing side even further.

"Yes…my Lord." Jeremiah conceded.

"Well, then, Jeremiah…finally…you have now become an official member of my following. Do you hereby agree to perform any particular act I ask you to do in order to oppose the resistance forces which include the Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic, the Muggles, Mudbloods and blood traitors?"

"I agree my Lord."

"Show me your mark."

Jeremiah then rolled up his left sleeve to reveal his faded red Dark Mark which Voldemort then jabbed with his wand which he took out of his robes. The mark then burnt black and began to wriggle on Jeremiah's forearm. It had been activated. Jeremiah was now a Death Eater under the full control of Lord Voldemort and so the memories shifted onwards…

Only a few months had passed for Jeremiah when Harry and Draco arrived at his next selected memory. The setting was a large lounge like room filled with multiple comfy armchairs and sofas. There was also a spindly, shiny, wooden coffee table in the centre of the room on top of the reddish carpet. The room was dimly lit only by a few candles which sat in odd places around the room including sitting on top of a bookshelf. Jeremiah was sat back with his hands behind his head and his feet up on one of the sofas when Severus suddenly burst into the room. His face was a paler white that is usually was and streaked with dried out tears, his eyes were puffy and red and his curtains of greasy, black hair was slightly ruffled. When he burst in erratically, Jeremiah bolted out of his seat out of surprise because of the surprise that Severus had caused by running into the room.

"SEVERUS?! What the bloody is wrong?! You almost gave me a heart-attack!" Jeremiah exclaimed taking a deep breath and sitting back on the sofa.

"Haven't you heard?! It's the Potters, Jeremiah, the Potters!" Jeremiah's face took on a confused expression as Severus replied.

"I'm sorry what? What are you talking about? The Potters?"

"Yes! The Potters-!"

"How many times do we have to say this. Ever since you told me about Lily and James getting married and having that child, we agreed not to bring them up." Jeremiah said bitterly.

"They're dead, Jeremiah! THEY'RE DEAD!" Severus called out. His exclamatory statement changed Jeremiah's confused face into one that was incredibly worried.

"What do you mean they're dead?"

"THEY'RE DEAD! BOTH OF THEM! JAMES AND LILY!"

"James and Lily? Wait…but not, Harry? Their son?"

"Yes! They're both dead but he isn't."

Jeremiah gasped before continuing as the truth slowly began to sink in as his eyes began to fill up, "I…I don't believe you…I mean….eurgh…who killed them then huh?"

"The Dark Lord, of course…" Severus sighed trying to tame his hair absent-mindedly.

"But…why? There's so many other members of the Order and the Ministry that he could target that are much more important to the cause. I don't believe you…I can't…I won't…Tell me the truth!"

"I am doing so," Severus exhaled, "The reason why the Dark Lord had to kill them is because they protected Harry-"

"What's Harry got to do with it?! He's just a baby!"

"Listen to me!" Severus ordered Jeremiah, "I overheard a prophecy that I told the Dark Lord about. I wasn't sure what it meant but according to the Dark Lord it seemed that he had no other choice but to go out and kill Harry."

"But he didn't?! You just said that he didn't! You said he killed Lily and James!" Jeremiah was gradually breaking down now as tears began to stream down his face as his and Severus' conversation continued.

"James and Lily protected Harry so the Dark Lord had to kill them!" Severus choked a little as he spoke and withdrew a single tear from his left eye as he said Lily's name, "Something happened though. Some spell that Lily cast before her death protected Harry. The Killing Curse rebounded off of Harry and sort of destroyed the Dark Lord…"

Harry shifted uncomfortably as the conversation surrounding the deaths of his mother and father and his survival through the event continued. He couldn't believe his own ears as Severus and Jeremiah discussed what had happened in Godric's Hollow, both suffering the loss of their friends but not willing enough to say anything about it.

"I can't…I don't know how to…that can't be true. I don't believe you." Jeremiah murmured through his fist which was jammed in his mouth.

"Believe me Jeremiah, it is true…I saw the ruins of the house in Godric's Hollow myself. By the way…your friend Black's been arrested."

Jeremiah shook his head profusely and tried to brush away his tears with the hem of his robes' sleeve, "Now I definitely don't believe you! Sirius?! Arrested?! What the hell for?!"

"Murder, Jeremiah, murder…" Severus said quietly.

"NO! I refuse to believe it! That's rubbish! You're lying to me! Who did he kill then, hey?! WHO?! Where's your damn evidence?!"

"It's definitely true, Jeremiah. There were thirteen eye witnesses that saw him pretty much blow up Peter Pettigrew…"

Jeremiah gulped, scratched his head and let out a breathy laugh, "Wormtail?! No way! Sirius wouldn't kill anybody never mind his friend! I don't…I can't…why, Severus, why?! IT CAN'T BE TRUE!"

"I'm sorry, Jeremiah…I couldn't believe it when I heard Lily was dead but… she is..." Severus muttered.

" I don't understand…Sirius is been taken to Azkaban?"

"Yes. Immediately. The Ministry were quick in taking him away…"

"I just don't see why Sirius would kill him!"

"Nobody really knows, Jeremiah…I'm not entirely sure of the details myself…it's all a mess anyway."

"So…the Dark Lord is…gone?" Jeremiah wondered, still crying but trying his very best to contain his emotions in order to understand all the facts surrounding what had happened.

"Yes…nobody understands why but…yes. The Dark Lord is essentially dead."

"So…our master and my old friends are dead and imprisoned as a result of this child, Harry?!" Jeremiah was sniffing and attempting to avoid further sobbing before punching the small table in front of him with anger.

"It's the only reasonable explanation for it…protecting the child killed Lily and the Dark Lord. Now we have both lost our…friend…and the Death Eaters have lost their guidance. I mean…what do we do now without the Dark Lord in charge?"

"I'm not sure…" Jeremiah sat back again and began to stare at the ceiling wiping a few more tears out of his face, "He'd only just begun integrating me into his inner circle but through that I'd sort of become his apprentice. I mean…I'm the only member of the Death Eaters who hasn't properly performed yet, Severus-."

"What're you getting at, Jeremiah?" Severus cut in.

"Maybe this is my time to prove myself to the others. To finally develop myself into a true Death Eater…"

"Are you sure the Death Eaters will even continue now with the Dark Lord gone."

"Without the Dark Lord the group may remain on a smaller, less public scale only because we would be without the Dark Lord's influence. The reason the group will remain is because of the disbelief in his death. The others will have hope in his return."

"And do you? Do you believe he will come back?"

Jeremiah lowered his head and turned it so that he could face Severus as he spoke, "I'm not entirely sure but if he does ever come back then the group will still be active and prepared to work underneath him."

"So…you're offering to temporarily replace the Dark Lord just to keep the Death Eaters going?"

"I guess so…I mean…after everything that's happened I feel the need to do something. Being in control of the Death Eaters will allow me to do said things…"

"Even after today you're still thinking of opposing the Order and the Ministry even though people that you used to care about died as part of those groups died at the Dark Lord's hands?" Severus was shocked by Jeremiah's decision and was confused to why on earth he was continuing to oppose the Ministry and the Order.

"Exactly. The Dark Lord I'm sure had his reasons for needing the Potter boy dead…it was his existence which prompted the Dark Lord's death as well as James', Lily's and Wormtail's…it's protecting the wrong people and fighting for the wrong causes that is killing people on the Ministry and Order's side. They're all killing each other so I don't see a problem in us speeding up that process. I have the chance here to become great, Severus, and I'd like to take it after the life I have had."

"So…what are you going to do apart from trying to lead the Death Eaters in secret, then? What's this plan of yours to achieve 'greatness'?" Severus was evidently in opposition to Jeremiah's ideas but tried to remain seemingly interested.

"We need to show the Order and the Ministry and the Muggles and the Mudbloods and the blood traitors that though officially the war might of ended with the Dark Lord's death our rivalry is not. Until the Dark Lord resumes control of our group or some other dark wizard takes real control, I am going to take the reins here. I am going to gradually disintegrate the establishment and society that made my childhood hell!" Jeremiah then stood up and flipped the coffee table over with a kick from his foot with a grunt of anger before roughly removing the remainder of drying tears from his face and sniffing loudly. He then exhaled heavily and clenched his fists.

"The plan is what then, Jeremiah?! Well?! What do you plan for them?! What do you plan for the people for which your friends belonged and died for?!" Severus' attempt to change Jeremiah's mind failed to work because instead of realising Severus was against his proposals, Jeremiah was too befuddled with his own emotions that he just told him.

"The people mainly responsible for the spreading and support of stupidity against the Death Eaters deserve to be punished. They are ruining many lives on both sides and I believe it is my responsibility to resolve the infection to the Wizarding world that they have caused!"

"What're you going to do?!"

"I'M GOING TO KILL THEM! ALL OF THEM!" Jeremiah bellowed, "I do not care how many innocent people's lives it take bloody takes but I will reach the top of the Ministry and the Order and every single resistance organisation and kill those in charge! Every single one of them will die at my hand until none are left, the resistance collapses and order, under our control, is restored to the wizarding world!"

"You're insane, Jeremiah." Severus stated beginning to exit the room hastily.

As Severus left the room Jeremiah chuckled and said, "Maybe I am…"

As the door closed on Jeremiah the room went dark and the memories swapped. The next thing Harry and Draco knew, time had moved on again…

Ten years later at Malfoy Manor, Jeremiah faced Lucius on either side of the long dining table. Jeremiah seemed thinner, his eyes wider and his face holding several scars. Lucius sat in front of him occasionally stroking his long, blond hair, staring at his guest with his dark eyes.

"Jeremiah…you understand why I have called you out tonight?" Lucius simpered.

"Not exactly, no." Jeremiah said, mystified.

"It's taken me a long time to find you. You should be grateful for the efforts I have made to return you to this world."

"I was comfortable enough where I was, thank you very much."

"What? Living in the Muggle world? What kind of life is that?"

Jeremiah gritted his teeth, "I had the ability to get rid of so much vermin there though Lucius."

"So it's true…you have been murdering the Muggles after all?"

"Certainly."

"You risk exposure of our world in order to please yourself?"

"I thought you shared my distaste for the Muggle scum?"

Lucius shook one curtain of his blond hair out of his eyes before saying, "I do, definitely, yes, however…you could have been at least a bit more…careful."

"Careful you say?"

"Yes, careful. You've blundered about that world for the past three years killing as many Muggles as possible without even trying to cover yourself up."

"They're Muggles, they don't stand a chance in finding me." McKinnon chuckled.

"Yes, normal Muggles might not have the required intelligence to detect wizarding presence in their investigations but when assisted by wizards themselves…things are very different."  
McKinnon sat aback in his chair and licked his lips, "I was unaware wizards were aiding the Muggles with their investigations?"

"Yes…the Ministry of Magic themselves."

"Why so?"

"There's been serial killings of plenty of Muggles in strange circumstances…the Ministry thought it best to intervene especially since your disappearance from this world."

"They've missed me then?"

Lucius dismissed with a dry laugh, "Ever since you left this world the Ministry's been on high alert."

"You'd think I was…dangerous."

"How many did you kill again?"

"I think I lost count when I passed fifty."

"When did all of this begin then, Jeremiah? My memories of you ten years ago were of a young man who was struggling to come to terms with the death of his family and was a part of a group which he didn't really belong or contribute to. What changed you into the infamous serial killer that we now all now know?"

"I saw the light…I realised it was up to me to do something about the problem our enemies caused for both worlds."

"The Dark Lord somehow worked his 'magic' upon you, didn't he?"

"It was my own personal decision."  
"Don't deny it wasn't partly due to the influence of said Dark Lord."

McKinnon then forcibly admitted, "Yes, the Dark Lord did have a slight influence on my choice but it mostly down to me."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he had tricked you in order to gain your loyalty and respect, Jeremiah."

"Even if he had tried, I would have still joined either way."

"Oh, really?" Lucius laughed half-heartedly, "Continue with whatever you damn well believe in then, Jeremiah…"

"Don't worry, I will."  
"The old Jeremiah McKinnon wouldn't touch a fly. Surely it wasn't your idea to kill these people?"

"It certainly was, Lucius. I wanted…I needed to kill them!"

"Yet you appear to have killed some particular individuals…"

"Really? I never noticed."

"So you didn't deliberately assassinate some of the high members of the Wizengamot or the Auror Office's best?"

"Well…maybe it was just…coincidental."

"These people weren't threats to you. They were threats to the Dark Lord."

McKinnon then raised his arms and waved them in a mocking, comedic fashion, "OKAY! OKAY! I admit it!" he had a wide grin on his face that portrayed some sort of inner malice, "Good ol' Lordy had a list of people he wanted dead which he handed to me shortly after my family were…you know…and gave me the privilege of getting rid of his enemies."

"But he's gone, Jeremiah. The Dark Lord has gone. There is no need to dispose of his enemies."

"I've pretty much killed the majority of them before I was ushered out you know," Jeremiah ignored Lucius, "The Ministry finally managed to get on my tail so I had no other choice but to leave this world. Now do you understand why I took refuge in the Muggle world?"

"Yes, yes, yes but what I want to know is why you still plan to remove the Dark Lord's old enemies?"

"In case of his return, why else?"

Lucius' eyes widened, "Did you just say 'in case of his return'?"

"Precisely."

"He is dead, Jeremiah. That charm that Potter's Mudblood mother put on him saw the Dark Lord's Killing Curse rebound on him! There's no sign of him left! He has not acted for over 10 years! What possibly makes you think he will return?!"  
"My belief, Lucius, my belief!" Jeremiah exclaimed, "I sincerely believe the Dark Lord will return to life."

"But…how?"

"I am unsure of how but I can assure such a thing will happen. The Dark Lord's powers knows no boundaries."

"Jeremiah, he will not re-!"

"LUCIUS!" Narcissa Malfoy then burst into the dining room with a terrified expression on her face.

"What on earth is it, Narcissa?!"

"THE DARK LORD!" she cried.

"What about the Dark Lord?!"

"HE HAS RETURNED!"

As Lucius gulped and rubbed his left forearm where his Dark Mark lay, McKinnon jumped up to burst into a fit of hysterical laughter and began dancing erratically as the memory disappeared. Once more a new memory took its place…

"My Lord…?"

It was the graveyard. Four years had passed in the account of Jeremiah McKinnon's life but the setting for this memory reminded Harry of events that had occurred in his own life four years ago. Harry had seen the graveyard countless times in his nightmares and only once in real life. On that night of the Triwizard Tournament's third trial, the cup enchanted to be a Portkey had taken the late Cedric Diggory to his death and Harry to a lucky encounter with newly resurrected and restored Lord Voldemort. The events Harry witnessed, he assumed, continued some time after his escape with Cedric's corpse. Voldemort was pacing angrily in the centre of a ring of Death Eaters, Peter Pettigrew, admiring his silver hand, was nearby. The call to Lord Voldemort made from one of the Death Eaters in the ring took Voldemort by surprise. Harry recognised the Irish accent immediately as it belonged to McKinnon himself. The wizard removed his mask and dropped down his hood with a wide smile at his master.

"Jeremiah McKinnon?!" Voldemort exclaimed, "Why did you not announce your presence earlier?!"

"I'm sorry, my Lord, but I was too intrigued by tonight's proceedings with Mr Potter."

"Ah…you enjoyed said events?" Voldemort sighed with a sly smile on his pale face.

"Of course I did but it was just a shame that you were unable to successfully murder the child."

Voldemort's leer increased as his conversation with McKinnon continued, "You appear imminently…different to your former self Jeremiah. Am I correct in saying so?"

"Absolutely my Lord. I have…changed." McKinnon simpered.

"You don't say…" Voldemort approached McKinnon slowly, "It appears your morals have deserted you and left you in my hands."

"You could say that I've…seen the light?"

"Before my…disappearance…I did not think you would undertake my wisdom but am I right in assuming you have done so?"

"To the best of my capabilities, master."

"Excellent," Voldemort then stopped walking and stood directly in front of McKinnon as they talked, the other Death Eaters remained silent and unmoving, not wanting to disrupt Voldemort and cause him an annoyance out of fear they may be punished, "You took the appropriate actions needed then to tick off the people on my list?"

"Oh yes, my Lord…and I can tell you…they experienced just the right amount of torturous pain before they exited this world in their most awful of deaths."

Voldemort was then prompted into a roar of triump and a chorus of ecstatic laughter which McKinnon whole heartedly co-operated in, "You killed them all…? All of them?"

"Yes, yes indeed."

Voldemort took a step backwards and nodded as he chuckled a little more before announcing to the remainder of his followers, "You see! This is what I want! True dedication! Jeremiah here has displayed the utmost loyalty to myself! You will not see more than this unless you bother to attempt to do so yourself!"

"B-but m-m-my Lord…what about m-m-m-me? I came back! I f-found you!" Pettigrew interjected.

"I WILL NOT REPEAT MYSELF WORMTAIL!" Voldemort turned on Pettigrew, spitting as he bellowed in his timid, rat-like face, "YOU RETURNED TO ME OUT OF FEAR ON HEARING OF MY STRENGTHENING! YOU ARE NOT LOYAL, YOU ARE JUST LAME AND WEAK!"

Pettigrew then backed away quivering from his master as Voldemort turned back to McKinnon.

"I thank you, My Lord, for your appreciation of my duties." McKinnon bowed to Voldemort.

"Do not thank me, dearest follower as my thanks to you are far greater for your accomplishments on my behalf."

"Yes, certainly, my Lord. Sorry…" apologised McKinnon.

"Now…as I have now…returned…it is time for me to grant you with a little bit more responsibility and power than you previously owned during my absence."

"I look forward to whatever you give me, master."

"You see…as you achieved such successes in deploying the deaths of some of my more particular enemies I think it wise to give you such duties once more," Voldemort began, "Since the beginning of my return I've managed to acquire brand new enemies and I'm sure as I fully re-establish myself into the Wizarding world, the numbers will increase tenfold…so in response to this, I would like you to become my official assassin of sorts. Do you oblige?"

"I oblige, my Lord." McKinnon replied hastily.

"Good…" Voldemort said, "Well, with this, I see you exempt of taking a part in normal Death Eater activities…you will only respond to me relating to orders and the others will now respect you as my second in charge. If you receive any disrespect from your fellow followers then alert myself and I will deal with said follower in the way I find reasonable."

"That seems…more than I expected, My Lord…but…I definitely do not protest to being given said responsibilities."

"Also," Voldemort ignored McKinnon's comment, "If there ever comes a time…of which I am certain there will not be…when I am unable to have the ability to kill Harry Potter then I give you permission to be legible for being able to take my place as his maker. Agreed?"

"Agreed, my Lord."

The memories proceeded, as the dark, dingy graveyard that had haunted Harry so much evaporated, never to be seen again…

"Jeremiah…I did not think I would be seeing you tonight?"

It was another place Harry would never be able to forget. It was the clearing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest where he had been killed by Lord Voldemort and where the latter had been destroyed himself by Onya Lewis. This time, Harry realised he was watching Voldemort, surrounded by some of his key supporters such as Bellatrix and Draco's parents, sat waiting for Harry during the Battle of Hogwarts. Voldemort had now just noticed Jeremiah McKinnon tumbling out of a tangle of bushes into the clearing. As he got back onto his feet, Jeremiah was addressed by Voldemort.

"I did not expect your presence here…what is the meaning for it?"

"Are you kidding my Lord?!" McKinnon sniggered as he dusted off the dirt on his robes, "I wasn't going to miss this for the world!"

"You see…as a result of your years acting as a predatory killer I did not think a war would be suited for your calibre, Jeremiah."

"I'm just a killer, my Lord. Doesn't matter where, when, what, who, why or how, I'll be there to kill vermin!"

"You are a little more than excited aren't you, Jeremiah?"

"OH, YES!" Jeremiah spasmed with glee, "The adrenaline is pumping through my veins…! I'M HUNGRY FOR MUDBLOOD!"

"I expect great killings then, my friend. Do your best tonight."

"I'll do more than my best, master." McKinnon winked.

"But remember this," Voldemort seized McKinnon by his arm, "If I am to die tonight-."

"MY LORD SUCH ATHING WOULD NEV-!" McKinnon interrupted Voldemort loudly.

"CEASE!" Voldemort silenced McKinnon, "If I am unfortunate enough to become a victim of my own design tonight and Harry Potter remains living try you best to end his life! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

"YES MY LORD!"

"Now…" Voldemort took a hefty breath, "How do you expect to exploit your murderous mission without the entire Ministry and Order forces recognising you and trying their very best to stop you?"

"I'm all set, my Lord." McKinnon took out a flask whose contents was murky like mud and shook it in front of Voldemort.

"You plan to disguise yourself using Polyjuice Potion?"

"I don't see why not?"

"I'm not doubting your plan, Jeremiah…" Voldemort gave a little smile, "I actually admire your plan and I hope that you manage to take on a new disguise for as long as it is needed to kill the slime that is Mudblood and blood traitorous!"

"Don't worry, my Lord, this potion is highly concentrated…it'll last for hours…"

The memories moved again as Harry began to realise how he came to meet with Jeremiah McKinnon. He'd disguised himself so he would not be recognised and be targeted during the battle. His mission, as given to him by Voldemort, was to be the one to kill Harry if his master was unable to do so. McKinnon had promised to do this and it explained why the wizard had been so determined all this time to kill Harry and did anything he could to do so…

"As we can't force you to tell us your name and we can't confirm who you are without documentation, we're sending you to our Australian counterparts where you'll be identified and trialled and most likely imprisoned. Is there anything you wish to say before we extradite you there?"

In Kingsley Shacklebolt's office, the Minster of Magic himself sat behind his desk facing Jeremiah McKinnon who was chained to a chair in front of Kingsley with two Aurors stood behind him, wands by their sides.

"No…" McKinnon murmured.

"Well then…Prisoner, you will now be taken away and extradited effective immediately to the Australian Ministry of Magic." Kingsley stated. The memories accelerated forwards again…

It was night and at the back of Jeremiah McKinnon's own personal tent in a temporary Death Eater base somewhere in a forest, there was glowing ball of light that hovered near to the desk McKinnon sat behind. The ball illuminated the desk so that McKinnon was able to continue ruffling through a bunch of documents that he had seemingly acquired from the Ministry of Magic months previously. Harry assumed it was late at night and McKinnon had found nothing better to do but to take another look at the various files he stole from the Ministry. This time, however, as he sifted through piles of information, fact-files, reports and moving photographs he came across one document that took his eye. Harry and Draco were stood behind McKinnon and so were able to read the document's header which read; 'MCKINNON FAMILY MASSACRE – REPORT'. As Harry and Draco skim-read the report they then understood the sudden shock and anger that consumed McKinnon as he spotted something extremely significant on the parchment. The document described how Travers the Death Eater, under orders from Lord Voldemort, had been the one who had who had massacred Jeremiah's family. As Harry and Draco knew from McKinnon's earlier memory, Voldemort had managed to lie to McKinnon and make him think Muggles and Muggle-borns had killed his family out of anguish in order to get him on side. However, as the realisation that the dark wizard that McKinnon had campaigned for had lied to him to gain his trust in him, McKinnon was livid. He frustratedly ripped apart the document and smashed his fists into the table with an aggressive grunt before flipping over the desk and because of his loss of concentration on keeping focussed on the light he had created, Jeremiah's anger switched the ball of light out. Harry then realised why McKinnon had changed. Nearing to the end, before and into organising the Death Eater civil war, McKinnon had become aware that Voldemort had lied to him in order to get him to do his bidding for so many years. In response to this, McKinnon had become opposed to Voldemort and strived to defeat him and anybody that supported or attempted to replicate him. McKinnon's undying love for his family saw him drop his loyalty to the Death Eaters and Voldemort in order to do anything to destroy Voldemort and anything and everything else to compensate for the guilt and anger he felt for his mistakes and his grief. McKinnon wanted Onya dead because she stood for Voldemort did and had powers that she would use to kill those similar to McKinnon's parents. McKinnon, as he died before Harry and Draco's eyes, came to realise the error of his ways and was desperate for at least one person to understand why he was the man he became. McKinnon had achieved this as both Harry and Draco were now both fully aware of the what had caused Jeremiah McKinnon to be the man he was. At that moment, the memories ran out and Harry and Draco felt themselves be reeled back into the real world. In seconds they exited the dark depths of the Pensieve and landed on their knees back in the headmaster's office.

After Harry and Draco clambered back onto their feet, exchanged glances at one another and the Pensieve they had just exited, they gradually made their way to the door of the office in silence. Without discussing what they had seen the pair descended down the spiral staircase so that they returned to the what was left of the corridors of Hogwarts. Swiftly, the two made their way back out into the courtyard, ignoring the devestation left behind by the ended war. Harry could see though, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Aurors, and other members of the Ministry of Magic, arresting the remaining Death Eaters and Onya's old followers. Here and there were huddles of people who tended to each others' wounds or mourned the loss of those who had fallen. Harry and Draco hadn't taken many steps into the open when Kingsley Shacklebolt reappeared with two Aurors who took Draco's hands and clamped them behind his back. As Draco failed to resist arrest Harry suddenly turned on Kingsley who stood close by, his expression solemn.

"What're you doing?! I said no to him going to Azkaban, Kingsley!" Harry yelled at the Minister for Magic.

"Harry, he has to be taken like this-!" Kingsley tried to reassure Harry.

"NO! You're not taking him, Kingsley! YOU SAID! He can't go to Azkaban!" Harry protested as Draco stopped moving and remained quiet, not looking at Harry who fought for him.

"We've got to set an example here Harry. We can't just let him run away after everything he's done."

"So you are taking him to Azkaban?! You lied to me!"

"No, no, no…I never said he was being taken to Azkaban you've just made that assumption."

"Then why are you arresting him?!"  
"Because nobody here understands him or is aware of what he's really done and they've made their assumptions that he's just another rotten Death Eater. If we release him now without trial we will lose the support of every wizard and witch in the country."

Harry contemplated the idea for a mere second, "Right…you can take him and trial him but you will release him!"

"We'll release him, yes Harry, but he will be punished for what he's done to so many people and their families!"

Harry nodded and then managed to get Draco to engage eye contact with him and said, "I promise you'll be out in no time."

Draco then nodded himself before Kingsley gestured for the two Aurors to Dissaparate with Draco leaving Harry alone with Kingsley.

"You better let him go, Kingsley." Harry told the Minister.

"I'll do my best, Harry." Kingsley gave Harry a wink before Disapparating himself.

Harry then turned away from where Kingsley, the two Aurors and Draco had just disappeared and then set out to go and find the Weasleys and Hermione but his searching was cut short. Harry had only walked several steps when he was ambushed by a group of pre-dominantly red-haired people. The Weasleys and Hermione had managed to find him. The only words that were then spoken as Harry was pulled into various hugs and back-pats were those of exclamations of joy about finding him or the ending of the war. Soon enough, after Mrs Weasley gave him a back-breaking hug and a kiss on the cheek, Harry was left alone with Ron, Hermione and Ginny as the others left them be. Though he was sure the three of them had already hugged and kissed him, Ron gave Harry a man-hug and a pat on the back. Hermione threw her arms around Harry and clung onto him like a sister would do to their brother when realising they were safe. She gave him a kiss on the cheek before Ginny fell into his arms. He held her close to him and gave her a meaningful kiss on the lips as the pain he had felt for so many months during her death disappeared in an instant. The two then separated and looked into each other's eyes with smiles.

"God have I missed you…" Harry exhaled exhausted.

"Ron and Hermione told me everything my brave, brave man…" Ginny stroked Harry's cheek, a tear hung in her eye.

"There's more that the three of you need to know."

"Spit it out then." Ron said.

"Maybe later."

"Are you…alright, Harry?" Hermione asked him.

"Never better, Hermione." Harry gave a hoarse laugh.

"So…what do you want to do now?" Ginny took Harry's hand into hers.

"Oh I don't know...sleeping in my bed doesn't sound half-bad. I'm a bit tired you see. What do you think, Weasley?" Harry squeezed Ginny's hand, never wanting to let go of it.

"I don't think that's a bad idea you know, Potter."

"Home?" Ginny suggested to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Home." Ron said.

"Home." Hermione seconded.

Harry felt in his heart that he was already there as he stood in the centre of the destroyed courtyard facing the remains of Hogwarts but then again maybe the Burrow was his new home after all. So, after a few seconds of deliberation, Harry agreed with his best-friends, "Home."


	35. The Next Great Adventure

It was Friday the thirty-first of December ninety-ninety nine, seven months after the Third World Wizarding War had ended. On that fateful day, the corpses of those who were Death Eaters had been incinerated as soon as possible. The remaining Death Eaters had been arrested, trialled and executed or imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Their Dark Marks had now faded due to dissolvance of their clan and the final death of Lord Voldemort and now looked like scars on their forearms. The families and friends of those fighting for the Ministry of Magic, the Order of the Phoenix and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had been given permission to take away the bodies of their deceased close ones so they could undertake their own burials personally. Those without any recognition were all buried in mass in the Hogwarts grounds. However, so were the majority of those who had been taken by their families and friends just alike what had happened a year previously. Now, the grounds at Hogwarts now hosted the bodies of over one hundred fighters.

The Ministry of Magic was very quickly reformed, removing any employees and policies which were suspected of being disloyal to the Ministry and that of the wizarding public. Kingsley Shacklebolt remained as the Minister for Magic and made sure that Azkaban Prisoner no longer used Dementors as guardians. The sheer number of Dementors had also decreased a lot due to moods of depression and despair amongst the wizarding world being lessened. Instead, more wizard guards had been deployed to guard the prisoners and those who were unfit for duty due to their Dark Art leanings as a result of their employment by Cornelius Fudge, were sacked and some imprisoned. Kingsley had also sent out a team of Aurors to successfully find Dolores Umbridge. The former Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts was then arrested, interrogated and imprisoned for her crimes against Muggleborns.

With the Ministry full re-established and in working order with their building nearly completed repairs wise, they were able to employ over a hundred volunteers to begin fixing up Hogwarts. These volunteers included those of the general public who genuinely wanted to provide their help to a good cause. Others were criminals who weren't incriminated enough to be imprisoned or executed so faced months or even years worth of manual labour. It just so happened that Draco Malfoy was one of these criminals. Thanks to Harry's intervention in his trialling just days after the war, the majority of the Wizengamot and the jury ordered in favour of community service rather than a life sentence to Azkaban or death. However during his time repairing Hogwarts, Draco had met another volunteer. She was two years younger than him and would have been in her last year at Hogwarts. At first she was unsure about Draco considering the mixed opinions the public had about him but once she had begun to talk to him and understood him, Astoria Greengrass soon became Draco's girlfriend and they were engaged as of Christmas Day.

By the end of the year Hogwarts had been rebuilt and had new staff employed ready for the new year when students old and new were enrolled for the second half of the year. The staff had managed to dilute Slytherin House as much as possible before re-opening the school so that when the Sorting Hat came to select students for the house they would not be solely pureblooded. Despite this, there was still a dark reputation around the house. Also, Voldemort's curse on the position of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor was believed to have been finally lifted and was soon filled. The school though was without a head teacher. Though Minerva McGonagall had been the temporary head-mistress she had found herself tired and retired from teaching leaving the post empty. Harry was asked to possibly take over as head-master but he quickly denied the job as he did not feel that an academic career was for him. In the Forbidden Forest, Firenze the centaur was still recovering from his wounds from the previous year's war but had been accepted back into his herd. The centaurs had also decided that pro-human leanings were not shameful after all.

Harry and Ginny had also been away. After Harry denied the post of the head-master at Hogwarts and helped Draco manage to escape severe punishment as a result of his trial, he and Ginny left the Burrow. A week after the second battle of Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny unexpectedly left one morning leaving only a note behind on the kitchen table and it read;

_'Gone travelling. Sorry we didn't tell you but we can't really explain why we're going. We don't know when we'll be back but it's just to get our heads straight. Don't worry about us. Hope to see you again all soon. Lots of love, Harry and Ginny x.'_

Since that day, the two had been making their way around the country by walking, Disapparation, broomsticks, floo Powder and all sorts of both Magical and Muggle transportation. Now, on New Year's Eve, they found themselves returning to the Burrow to celebrate the Milennium. It had just turned nine o'clock at night when the couple entered the back garden, stashing away their wands and adjusting their rucksacks before making their way to the kitchen door. They rapped on the door which was then answered by Mrs Weasley whose large mug of tea dropped to the kitchen floor and shattered as her mouth hung open in shock and some of the liquid spattered her cooking apron. She then held a hand to her mouth and weeped a little before squealing happily, "THEY'RE BACK!"

Soon enough, Harry and Ginny were ushered into the front room by Mrs Weasley to the cheers, laughter, crying, hugging and kissing of the Weasley family and Hermione who had all jumped out of their seats to greet the couple back home. Eventually, after minutes of jubilation and surprise at their return, the Weasley family and Hermione settled down and allowed Harry and Ginny to sit down. There was Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron, Hermione, Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Charlie, Percy and George. They had all gathered in the Burrow in order to celebrate the New Year but now were more than excited to discover where Harry and Ginny had been and what they'd be doing for so long. Harry and Ginny were then dragged into explaining everything. It became apparent that they'd been travelling the length and breadth of the country using all kinds of transportation methods. Harry said how he'd taken Ginny to all of the places he, Ron and Hermione had been to and hidden in during Voldemort's reign as the Death Eaters searched for them. They had also been to visit many people. They had spent time helping and being with certain staff members from Hogwarts as well as many of their old friends from Hogwarts. The pair of them had visited Neville Longbottom who had been enlisted into Auror training, a career he would undertake whilst attaining the correct qualifications and experience needed to become a Herbology professor at Hogwarts. Neville also, like many others, still owned his Dumbledore's Army coin and had pleasure in showing Harry that he would never forget those times and that he and the others owned the coins like badges of honour. He also continued living with Hannah Abbott in their newer flat which they were helped moving ino by Harry and Ginny. The pair had also been in contact with Albus Dumbledore's brother; Aberforth who had taken back his job as landlord of the Hog's Head and was still enjoying the company of his goats. Lavender Brown it seemed had begun to slowly recover from her encounter with werewolf; Fenrir Greyback who had attacked her at the Battle of Hogwarts a year previously. They'd also visited Hagrid who had been staying at the Leaky Cauldron whilst his hut was being remade at Hogwarts. He was still employed at Hogwarts as keeper of keys and grounds and still as the Care of Magical Creatures professor. Hagrid was still unmarried but supposedly had had a some sort of relationship with a giantess which didn't last too long.

Harry and Ginny had also recently visited Luna Lovegood and her father Xenophilius. Harry had given them some of his savings in order for their house to be fully restored. Together they had developed and re-released the odd magazine; _the Quibbler_, which had become much more popular due to Harry's backing of it. Many people admired the Lovegood's lunacy and its unintentional humour. Luna had also hastily become married to the boy she had fought with during the second battle at Hogwarts. Both her and Rolf Scamander had begun travelling the world looking for strange animals. Harry had also dragged Ginny to go and visit his now de-Imperiused cousin Dudley Dursley. He had managed to leave his home at Privet Drive out of anger at his parents for their disrespect towards Harry. Now living in a little flat in London, Harry and Ginny stayed with Dudley for a while and saw him begin a relationship with a girl he bumped into in the street one day. Harry and Ginny had also occasionally checked upon Draco. Harry and Draco had exactly become friends but now understodd one another better than they had done.

Though he'd considered it, Harry had decided against trying to become an Animagus as he felt like his concentration should be on more important things. He also realised that when in contact with a garden snake at Horace Slughorn's new home in Budleigh Babberton, that he was unable to shift it using Parseltongue. It seemed due to Voldemort's end that Harry could no longer communicate with snakes anymore with Harry was glad about. He'd also gone to the Forbidden Forest and had the Resurrection Stone buried into the ground with thanks to the stomping of a centaur's hoof. He also placed back the Elder Wand with Dumbledore in his tomb but decided to keep the Invisibility Cloak.

Then, it was time for the Weasleys to inform Harry and Ginny of what they had missed during their time away. During the talk Harry was sure he heard Hermione say that Viktor Krum, Harry's old Triwizard opponent and Seeker for his national team, had fallen in love with a woman back home in Bulgaria. George had now begun dating his twin brother Fred's ex-girlfriend Angelina Johnson and planned to get engaged with her. George had now reopened Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes with help from Ron but once the business had returned to normal, George decided to run it alone. Ron on the other hand had then copied Harry and Neville and enlisted himself to become an Auror too with the promise to George that if his business becomes incredibly lucrative that he might return to the joke shop after all. Percy had finally got married to his fiancée Audrey as she now become impregnated with what they believed was to become a baby girl which they wanted to be named Molly after Percy's mother Mrs Weasley. Ginny was expected to start playing for the Holyhead Harpies as soon as possible as a professional Quidditch player which she became excited about. Mr Weasley had helped finally disband the Order of the Phoenix once and for all and had managed to fix Sirius' magical motorbike which he wanted Harry to have. Hermione's parents had now returned to their home in England but Hermione had decided to live with Ron now knowing that her mum and dad were finally safe. Hermione had been booked in the year before to re-do her final year at Hogwarts and would now finally be able to do so. With her NEWTs completed she would be under to acquire a job in the Ministry to set up SPEW (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare). Though years previously she had told Rufus Scrimegour she didn't plan to embark on a career in Magical Law its what she actually plans to do. She wants a job in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to advance the rights of magical creatures and to eradicate the old pro-pure blood laws. It also apparent that Kingsley is adamant that Harry begin work as an Auror as soon as possible and would like him to give talks on Defence Agaisnt the Dark Arts to pupils at Hogwarts when studying there resumed.

Nearly three hours of conversation later and the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were settled in the living room and ready for the clock to strike twelve and for the Milennium to begin. The clock on the mantelpiece was soon to chime when Harry jumped out of his seat and knelt down before Ginny with a nervous grin on his face. She jumped back alarmed before giggling, "What the hell are you doing?!"

The clock struck twelve, "Ginny Weasley…"

"Yeah?" she replied awkwardly as Harry gulped and attempted to pluck up enough courage to speak further.

"W-will…y-y-you…erm…y'know…?"

"No, I don't know...?"

"Just ask her the bloody question, Harry!" Ron interrupted.

"Ron, shut up!" Hermione playfully punched him on the arm as she stared at the couple. Everybody in the living room was silent and waiting patiently as Harry trembled out of nervousness and his own body weight as he continued to kneel on the carpet. He lost his words for a moment as he gazed into Ginny's big, brown eyes.

"Willyoumarryme?" he said, garbled. He was certain Ginny understood him but she frowned a little so he repeated the question more clearly, "Will you marry me?" he stated coherently.

Ginny sat back a little in her seat and took a moment wipe a tear from her eye as she took Harry's hands and whispered into his ear.

"Yes."

The Weasleys and Hermione then erupted into cheers, claps and exclamations of delight (even baby Victoire issued a hoot) as Harry and Ginny kissed before Harry chuckled, "Sorry there's no ring or anything, I've been a bit busy you see!"

Eventually the celebration of Harry and Ginny's engagement calmed so that the couple, followed by Ron and Hermione, could go into the garden. Ron used his wand to produce a glowing ball of light that it hovered nearby to illuminate where the four of them stood.

"So…" Ron said, "You're marrying my sister?" he turned to Harry.

"It seems like it." Harry replied.

"Oh Ron, you aren't going to go all 'protective brother' on him now are you?" Ginny supposed.

"No actually. I was just going to say how I look forward to us becoming brothers!" Ron high-fived his best-friend as he said this.

"Technically you'll be brother in-laws." Hermione quipped.

"You always have to be the know-it-all don't you Hermione?" Harry snapped back jokingly.

"So very sorry Chosen One!" Hermione apologised sarcastically.

"The Chosen One…" Harry exaggerated his 'the' with a smile.

"Happy new year by the way guys," Ginny cut in.

"Oh yeah, what she said." Ron asserted.

"Yeah, lets hope this decade's better than the last one." Harry guffawed with the others.

"Oh it will be. You see, I hear there's a couple of weddings going on this year." Hermione's statement left the other three reasonably quiet before Ron spoke.

"A couple means two Hermione. The only wedding going on this year is Harry and Ginny's."

"So…you wouldn't like to get married to me Ronald?"

Harry and Ginny burst into laughter as Ron spluttered, "WHAT?!"

"I'm asking you to marry me, Ron." Hermione declared.

"But…?! Isn't the guy supposed to ask the girl?!" Ron exclaimed.

"Oh well, seeing as I'm the more mature partner in our relationship and I pretty much wear the trousers and you wouldn't have the sheer ability to ask me to marry you, I thought I'd take it upon myself to ask you."

"Right…well…" Ron murmured.

"Yes or no?" Hermione asked him.

"Ye-yes! Yeah, yeah of course! BLOODY YES!" Ron then grabbed Hermione and gave her passionate kiss to which Harry and Ginny childishly pretending to be revolted by. When the pair separated to four shared another bout of amusement.

"So, when we getting hitched?" Ron propped an arm around Hermione to which she giggled.

"Oh I don't know…same day as these two?"

"What?!" Ron and Ginny blurted out as Harry tried to prevent snorting in laughter.

"Well, you can't say us three," she gestured to herself, Ron and Harry, "Don't do everything together?"

"Yeah but-." Ron began.

"Exactly," Hermione interjected, "We might as well carry on the tradition after all."

"Wow," Ginny sighed, "Mum's gonna have a whale of time now. Double wedding?!"

"Oh, great…" Ron complained as the four entered another stage of temporary silence as they stared at the night sky. The four of them all joined hands as they admired the beauty of the moon and the stars. After some time, Harry decided to speak.

"What do you think my mum and dad would say if they saw me now do you think?" Harry asked Ginny.

"I'm sure they'd be proud of you…I'm proud of you…what you've done during these past nine years is something no ordinary teenager could have ever done. You've been so brave…" Ginny grasped Harry's hand tighter between her soft fingers.

"It'll be hard now won't it? I mean…adjusting to this. A normal life."

"I'm sure you'll manage."

"You think?"

"Don't worry, I'll be here the whole way."

"There was something you said…last year, after the battle, at the Lake. What was it? It made a difference, I think…"

"The dawn of a new era?"

"Yeah…the dawn of a new era."

Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione did not sleep that night. Instead, they stayed in the Burrow's back garden talking for hours on end. There was so much to say that needed to be said. So much that they remembered and wanted to enjoy remembering. That night they relived their lives together and looked forward to what the future had in store for them. They had faced so much during their school lives and now that that was over they had the whole world to explore. As the new decade began they agreed on one thing and one thing only. They decided that whatever they went out to do that they would do their very best to do one thing that they could never manage to do during their time at Hogwarts. On that night they promised one another to stay out of trouble, well, if they could help it anyway.


End file.
